Speaking

Paisley Currah lectures internationally on sex classification, gender and feminist thought, the history of discrimination against transgender people, and the ways conflicts over sex and gender are reshaping contemporary democracy. His work engages scholars and practitioners in law, political science, gender and sexuality studies, LGBTQ studies, and public health.

Selected Keynotes and Plenaries

“Sex Classification as a Tool of Governance,” Network of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies in Europe, Utrecht (2025)

“Sex as an Output of Governing,” Hancock Symposium, Westminster College (2025)

“Politics of the Body at the Crossroads,” Plenary Panel, Law and Society Association (2025)

“Sex as a Legal Category,” National Institutes of Health Symposium on Sex and Gender in the Genomic Era (2024)

“Legislating Gender,” Minx Auerbach Lecture, University of Louisville (2024)

“Trans Studies After Identity Politics,” Keynote Address, International Colloquium on Transgender Studies, Université Paris 8, Paris (2022)

“What Would a Transgender Political Science Look Like?” Keynote Address, Freie Universität Berlin (2021)

“Neoliberal Futures, Cultural Backlashes, and the Politics of Sex Classification,” Keynote Address, Canadian Federation for Humanities and Social Sciences (2017)

“Why Do Bathrooms Matter? Sex Classification, Trans Politics, and the New Culture Wars,” Keynote Address, University of North Carolina School of Law (2017)

“The Left Neoliberalism of Transgender Politics,” Duke University, Durham, NC (2016)

“What’s the Political Use of Transgender?” Plenary Panel, Trans* Studies International Conference (2016)

Recent Public Conversations and Cultural Events

Discussion with Michael Waters, The Other Olympians, Barnes & Noble, New York (2025)

“Revisiting the Archive of Trans Politics,” McNally Jackson, New York (2025)

“Sexual Democracy, Moral Panics, and Trans Politics,” Socialism Conference, Chicago (2025)