Keynote Speaker

Dr. Laurel Westbrook

Making More Lives Livable: Rethinking Anti-Violence Activism and Centering Transgender Joy

Current anti-violence efforts work to reduce violence against identity groups, such as people of color, women, and LGBT people. However, what if mainstream approaches have unintended consequences that run counter to the goal of making lives more livable? In this talk, Dr. Laurel Westbrook draws on the findings from their book on the transgender rights movement in the United States to explore this very question. Westbrook finds that the most common ways of trying to reduce violence against transgender people in the United States can be unintentionally damaging to the very group they aim to protect. This talk details these pitfalls and explores alternative ways of reducing violence against transgender people and making more lives livable, with a focus on highlighting and nurturing transgender joy.

Laurel Westbrook is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Their research focuses on gender, sexuality, race, violence, and social movements. They are the author of Unlivable Lives: Violence and Identity in Transgender Activism (University of California Press), and co-editor of Introducing the New Sexuality Studies: Original Essays (Routledge). Their scholarship has also been published in Social Problems, Gender & Society, and Sexualities, among other journals, and has been recognized with multiple awards from the American Sociological Association and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. They are co-founder and former co-chair of Sociologists for Trans Justice.

The keynote will be on Thursday, March 26, at 4 PM. It will also serve as the 2026 Lucy Somerville Howorth Lecture.