Unexpected pedestrians: Cisnormativity and ableism in public spaces in Buenos Aires

Abstract:

In Buenos Aires, broadening access to public spaces has been one of the main goals of the trans rights and disability rights movements over the past three decades. Both populations have encountered deep inequalities on the city’s streets, due respectively to police targeting and material infrastructures that presume certain bodily capacities. In this talk, I will discuss how cisnormativity and ableism have permeated the everyday production of public spaces and impacted trans and disabled individuals’ daily lives: hindering access to different places across the city, but also limiting participation in the vibrant social and political life that unfolds on the streets of Buenos Aires. Finally, I will argue that the trans rights and disability rights movements have been key both in transforming how public space is produced and regulated, and in rethinking the centrality assigned to public spaces.

More details, including RSVP for lunch or Zoom on the UMSI website.

Speaker Bio:

Francisco Fernández Romero is a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). His doctoral research focuses on cisnormativity and ableism in public spaces in Buenos Aires, their effects on everyday life, and trans & disabled activism aimed at broadening access to the city. He is a doctoral fellow with Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and a junior fellow with the Center for Applied Transgender Studies (CATS). He also holds teaching positions at the undergraduate and master’s levels in geography and gender studies. He has published work in journals ranging from Transgender Studies Quarterly and the International Journal of Transgender Health to the Latin American Journal of Geography and Gender.

This event is sponsored by the School of Information with support from IRWG.