27. Envisioning trans futures

How can we envision trans futures? What does trans flourishing look like?

What are the radical challenges to trans and gender diverse rights?

And what are the joys, curiosities and possibilities of social justice focused research and truly inclusive futures?

After some decades of progress, western governments are now reversing or threatening to reverse the legal rights and recognition of trans and gender diverse people.

In this context, trans and gender diverse people are often called upon to debate their rights and access to care.

This event refocuses the lens, and brings together scholars and community members working on empowering trans communities to talk about:

• trans identities and decolonial solidarities
• queer futures in the Asia Pacific
• trans futures in the classroom, and
• the expansion of trans legal rights and medical care.

Host

Woody (Louis Walker), drag artist and UTS staff member (Education Portfolio)

Panellists

• Dr Madi Day, Lecturer, Centre for Critical Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University
• Sidhi Vhisatya, Masters candidate, artist and curator, School of Communication UTS
• Professor Anna Cody, Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission
• Dr Archie Thomas, UTS Chancellors Research Fellow, Social and Political Sciences
• Dr Sasha Bailey, Trans Health Research Group, University of Melbourne

This event is the Andrew Jakubowicz annual lecture.

Andrew Jakubowicz is an emeritus professor at UTS, and is one of Australia’s pre-eminent scholars of cultural diversity, multicultural communities, and racism. For over 30 years Andrew was Professor of Sociology at UTS. The UTS Andrew Jakubowicz lecture was established in 2018 in his honour. A major theme of each event is the responsibility academic researchers have in shaping public discussion of major societal issues of wide relevance.

This is a collaborative event hosted by:

• UTS Discipline of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Design & Society
• UTS Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion
• UTS Trans and Gender Diverse Staff Reference Group

Please note: Madi Day's speech is not included, and you can hear them in the panel discussion. For further reading on Indigenous futures, read Everywhen: against 'the power of now' by Mykaela Saunders.

Host bio

Woody (he/him) is the self-proclaimed rootinest tootinest cowboy in the Inner West! Woody is a strong advocate for Drag King visibility and inclusion, and is passionate about sharing trans joy and making space for play and whimsy alongside our fight for trans rights. He made his debut at The Underground in 2019 as a UTS student, and has been trotting on his hobby horse around NSW ever since.

Speaker bios

Dr Archie Thomas is a non-Indigenous scholar and transgender man who has published widely on Indigenous and LGBTIQA+ movements, histories and policy issues in Australia, with a focus on educative institutions such as the schools and media. He is a Chancellor’s Research Fellow in Social and Political Sciences at UTS. He is the lead author of Does the media fail Aboriginal political aspirations? 45 years of news media reporting of key political moments (Aboriginal Studies Press, 2020) and Yipirinya: education for self-determination (forthcoming, 2026).

Dr Anna Cody is the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission. Before this, Dr Cody had a distinguished career as an academic, as a lawyer specialising in discrimination and as a passionate advocate for human rights.  Most recently she was the Dean of the School of Law and Professor at Western Sydney University for 4.5 years, leading education and research impact within the School to better reflect the diversity of the community and the intersection of law and justice.

Sasha Bailey (she/her) is a Research Fellow at University of Melbourne working across Trans Health Research Group (Department of Medicine) and Centre for Youth Mental Health (Orygen). Her program of public health research aims to improve the mental health and wellbeing of trans Australians through digital interventions and enhanced models of care.

Sidhi Vhisatya is a queer art practitioner from Indonesia, currently based in Sydney, Australia, where he is undertaking a Master by Research at the University of Technology Sydney. He has been part of the collective management of Queer Indonesia Archive (QIA) since 2020 and is working with the Bali Archive and Repository (BaliAAR). Sidhi works closely with Perwakas and the KAHE Community to explore and develop archival strategies that support and reflect the experiences of the trans community in Flores, Indonesia. His practice focuses on curating exhibitions and experimenting with methods of material collection, particularly within community-based and collaborative contexts. His broader research and artistic interests lie in storytelling and public history as critical tools for queer community engagement across Indonesia, alongside a focus on the intellectual history of Bali between 1920 and 1965.

Dr Madi Day is a trans Murri who was raised up on Dharug Ngurra where they live and work in the Blak LGBTQIA+SB community. Their work joins a tradition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander trans people who continue the longest running protest to colonialism and carry an unbroken legacy of resistance to attacks on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, lives and systems of governance and kinship. Madi specialises in research and policy concerning Indigenous peoples, gendered violence, digital technology, and whiteness and the far right.

This discussion has been lightly edited. Produced by Impact Studios at UTS.