UCLA

The creation of the cisgender binary through the advent of settler colonialism in the land now known as the United States contributed to centuries of violence against and erasure of trans* communities. Structural oppression against trans*ness at a societal level contributes to similar modes of oppression in microcosms of society, including all sectors of education. Underexplored are the ways such societal dominance permeates classrooms in postsecondary environments, where deficit-based narratives of trans* identities are both reinforced in course curriculum and perpetuated by exclusionary pedagogical practices. Oftentimes expected to shoulder the burden of transgressing their own oppression, trans* college students’ identities are not understood as assets to their educational environments. This qualitative study uses a critical, asset-based approach to center the ways of knowing trans* college students develop throughout their lives as self-authored epistemologies they employ to navigate trans*phobic classroom environments. Through combining queer theory with Esteban-Guitart’s funds of identity framework, I explore how trans* students develop their funds of identity throughout their lives, and interrogate how they utilize their funds of identity in navigating collegiate classrooms. Data were collected through a combination of qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, poetic reflections, and identity-mapping. Centering the narratives of 16 trans* undergraduate college students from across the United States and holding a range of social identities, findings underscore trans* students’ self-authored epistemologies as powerful assets they bring to their institutions of higher education. Findings show that trans* students develop a wealth of funds of identity throughout their lived experiences embodying their many social identities, including their trans*, racial, ethnic, class, and dis/ability identities. While individually unique, the similarities in where and how trans* collegians’ funds of identity were formed illustrate the many modes of knowledge production that trans* students tap into when traversing structural inequities in collegiate classrooms. These findings challenge deficit-based understandings of trans* students perpetuated in higher education scholarship, praxis, and policy, and similarly offer funds of identity as a valuable framework for asset-based work with trans* communities in higher education. Implications for actualizing research, praxis, and policy that affirms and liberates trans* realities are discussed.