Welcome to the conference: Transgender studies and theories-building up the field in a Nordic context

As a welcoming address to the conference 'Transgender Studies and Theories – Building up the Field in a Nordic Context', the article discusses relations between the fields of Gender Studies and Transgender Studies. Following Judith Butler's critique of 'proper objects', the author warns against a construction of a binary between the study of 'gender' and the study of 'transgender'. She argues that Gender Studies and Transgender Studies should be seen as intra-acting and mutually transforming fields of enquiry which among others share an interest in trans-epistemologies, the construction of knowledge transgressive and transitional spaces. She ends with a comment to the autobiography ofChristine Jorgensen whose MtF surgery hit the headlines of the world press in 1952, and to a family mystery which illustrates the problematic mix of silencing and sensationalism which for years characterized mainstream approaches to transgender issues.