Transecologies, trans-crip poetics and root baby at The 9th Nordic Trans Studies Conference

Together with Ely/iott and Wibke, Jasper J. Verlinden (HU Berlin) and Anthony Clair Wagner-Vepsä (Linnaeus University) were leading the workshop. "Transecological Relations: The Animal-Animal, More-Than-Animal, Human Animal, More-Than-Human and the Even-More-Than-That" invited trans scholars and workshop participants to question what transecologies might mean in the Nordic. The workshop offered to collectively reflect on the terms and concepts used in the field, and the various assumptions that keep weighing on them.  

In the 1st part of the workshop, Wibke Straube's and Ely/iott Mermans's jointly introduced transecologies as both a research field and a way of experiencing and relating to the world, stressing the need for intersectional and anti-colonial critical transecological work in the Nordic.  

Jasper Verlinden then shared two texts from the incredible work of (Prayers for my 17th Chromosome) and of Andrea Abi-Karam (, offering an analysis of how trans, BIPOC, crip identities and experiences can express themselves through creative writings. Finally, Anthony Clair Wagner-Vepsä concluded the first part of the workshop by showing the first result of their latest artistic research project, "root babies". In collaboration with artist Nienke van Veen, Wagner-Vepsä is asking how to re-think and create the monstrous in trans, mutualistic ecological forms. 

The second part of the workshop opened a creative space for all participants, beyond presenters and facilitators, to reflect on what transecologies might mean for them. Wibke Straube led the audience to create "unruled" poems, inviting everyone to then share them. The workshop ended with shared thoughts on the two-part workshops and its possible avenues for future transecological research.  

This article was written by the postdoctoral researcher of the WEIRD project Ely/iott Mermans.