Hi! You mentioned in your about that you're getting a PhD in being a tumblrina? That sounds really cool and I'd love to talk about it!! Academia wasn't for me, but something about the academic approach to things suits my mindset well, and it's not something I've been able to use lately.
I am indeed! I’ll be defending my tumblrina dissertation in May or June (then it’ll be dr. Tumblrina to you) and always happy to talk about what I’m working on!
The short version is that I’m interested in the epistemic networks that have formed among trans(/)Mad users on here, tracing back to the rise of self-diagnostic/ gender self-determination efforts in the early 2010s (tucutes and the like) and both the preceding / concurrent efforts elsewhere online and the continued impact of this knowledge work today and beyond.
Basically what I am reading for are the speculative & care-full practices not exclusive to the internet but perhaps more local here: ways we can materialize our identities outside “real worlds” hostile to our existence as trans Mad ppl, ways we traverse gender and sanity and even species / singlet subjectivity, and ways the collective pedagogical practices of digital networks help to maintain and reproduce these spaces we rely on for survival and intimacy and personal edification.
To think about this, I’ve developed the concept of transMadness, which sits alongside portmanteaus like queercrip ( @rebirthgarments ) and neuroqueer to describe not only the intersection of discrete experiences but in this case lets us think about how trans”ness” Maddens gender + Madness facilitates and gives us language for reality-crossing very amenable to trans study.
I have a bunch of publications and you can find the peer reviewed ones here. They’re not all about tumblr but many are.
Lastly, I want to mention a few colleagues I cite in the dissertation that may be reading this! @sadhoc @materialisnt @campgender @metapianycist @yesthattoo @floral-ashes.
Publishing this so others know I’m open to talking but feel free to dm me for more back & forth!












