B Lee Aultman
Lecturer in Political Science
B Lee Aultman, PhD, teaches courses in American politics, queer and trans studies, critical race theory, and theories of democratic organizing. Their research concerns ordinary life among trans and gender nonnormative people. They argue that the “trans ordinary” becomes a critique against solely anti-normative movements concerning sex/gender systems. Their proposed book aims to provide evidence of an ordinary politics that includes methods of self-management and affective structures of belonging. They hope to contribute to the growing archive of trans politics and the literature on the ordinariness of queer being. B is nonbinary transfeminine and uses they/them pronouns.
More About Me
I co-host a critical theory podcast, The Always Already Podcast, and blog at Gender Strangers.
You may access my CV here.
Research Interests
Trans Politics, Queer Theory, Gender Studies, Phenomenology, Affect Theory, Critical Race Studies
Representative Courses
Radical Organizing
Queer Politics
Culture, Identity, and Behavior
Introduction to US Politics
Democracy, Money, and Power
Junior Seminar
International Relations
Publications
Journal Articles
Aultman, B L. “Injurious Acts: Notes on Happiness from the Trans Ordinary.” 2019. In “Happiness,” edited by Juliane Roemhild. Special issue, Writing from Below. Available at https://writingfrombelow.org/happiness/injurious-acts-notes-on-happiness-from-the-trans-ordinary-aultman/
______.“The Trans Complaint: Contributions to the Disagreement about Desire.” 2019. In “Media, Activism, and Social Development,” edited by Bekeh Ukelina. Special issue, Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies. 20 (Fall): 86-113.
______.“Epistemic Injustice and the Construction of Transgender Legal Subjects.” 2016. In “Epistemic Injustice in Practice,” edited by Franziska Dübgen. Special issue, Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies. 15 (Summer): 11-34.
______.“Cisgender.” 2014. In “Postposttranssexual: Key Concepts for a Twenty-First Century Transgender Studies,” edited by Susan Stryker and Paisley Currah. Special issue, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. 1, no. 1-2 (May): 61-62. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2399614
Encyclopedia Articles
Aultman, B L. “Nonbinary Trans Identities.” 2019. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy, edited by Don Haider-Markel. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1195
Co-Authored Book Chapters
Aultman, B L., and Paisley Currah. 2017. “Politics Outside the Law: Transgender Life and the Challenge of Legibility.” In LGBTQ Politics: A Critical Reader, edited by Marla Brettschneider, Susan Burgess and Cricket Keating, 34-53. New York: New York University Press.
Smith, Raymond and Brandon L. H. Aultman. 2011. “Depoliticize the Creation of Congressional Districts.” In Importing Democracy: Ideas from Around the World to Reform and Revitalize American Politics and Government, by Raymond Smith, 141-149. Santa Barbara: Greenwood.
______. 2011. “Empower the Courts to Issue Advisory Opinions”. In Importing Democracy: Ideas from Around the World to Reform and Revitalize American Politics and Government, by Raymond Smith, 159-166. Santa Barbara: Greenwood.
MANUSCRIPTS IN PROGRESS
Books
Aultman, B L. Ordinary yet Durable Worlds: Trans Lives and the Unfinished Business of Normativity. Book proposal submitted September 1, 2019. Rebecca Colesworthy, ed. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Articles and Book Chapters
Aultman, B L. “Transgender Social Movements: Narrative Symbolism and History.” For The Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy, edited by Don Haider-Markel. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Submitted for review October 31, 2019.
______. “Discrimination.” For The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies, edited by Genny Beemyn and Annie Goldberg. New York: SAGE.
______. “Was Magneto Right: Rethinking a Nonnormative Queer Politics.” For The Futures of Cartoons Past: The Culture Politics of X-Men: The Animated Series, edited by Jeremy M. Carnes, Margaret Galvan, and Nicholas E. Miller. University Press of Mississippi.
Presentations / Conferences
“Manifestos and the Political Aesthetics of Desire.” Talk given at the “Thursday School,” Media Arts MFA Program, Purchase College, Purchase, NY. December 5, 2019.
“Reading Melanie Klein’s ‘A Study of Envy and Gratitude’ with Mariana Ortega’s ‘Hometactics.’”Sound Education Conference. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. November 3, 2018.