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 communities. They have published on a range of topics concerning American political institutions and contributed a number of essays and commissioned articles on trans politics and theories of gender. Their book, A Politics of the Trans Ordinary (advance contract, SUNY Press) re-describes transness through the lens of ordinary life, archival ethnography, and a theory of non-normative love as a scene of political attachment and possibility.
B is nonbinary, identifies as transfeminine, and uses they/them pronouns.
More About Me
B is a co-host of the critical theory podcast, The Always Already Podcast.
Their personal profile is located at www.bleeaultman.com.
Click HERE for their most current CV.
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
Books
A Politics of the Trans Ordinary: Archival Objects and the Endurance of Transness. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Under advance contract. Signed May 31st, 2020. Manuscript expected for review August 31st, 2020.
Journal Articles
2019a “Injurious Acts: Notes on Happiness from the Trans Ordinary.” In “Happiness,” edited by Juliane Roemhild. Special issue, Writing from Below.
2019b “The Trans Complaint: Contributions to the Disagreement about Desire.” 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.
2016 “Epistemic Injustice and the Construction of Transgender Legal Subjects.” 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.
2014 “Cisgender.” 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.
Commissioned Articles
Forthcoming “The Rise of Trans Social Movements: Narrative Symbolism and History.” For The Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy, edited by Don Haider-Markel. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Forthcoming “Discrimination.” In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies, edited by Genny Beemyn and Annie Goldberg. New York: SAGE.
2019c “Nonbinary Trans Identities.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy, edited by Don Haider-Markel. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Book Chapters
Forthcoming “Was Magneto Right? Theorizing a Nonnormative Politics of Love.” 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. (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi).
2017 with Paisley Currah. “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.
2011a with Raymond Smith. “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: ABC-CLIO.
2011b _____.“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: ABC-CLIO.
Dissertation
2018 “Feeling as Knowing: Trans Phenomenology and Epistemic Justice.” Committee: Paisley Currah (Chair), Linda Martín Alcoff, Alyson Cole.
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.