[Air-L] New Book: The Two Revolutions: A History of the Transgender Internet

[Avery Dame-Griff]

All,

Since it’s now officially out, I wanted to share the announcement for my
new book, *The Two Revolutions: A History of the Transgender Internet*,
which might be of interest to folks on this list:
https://nyupress.org/9781479818310/the-two-revolutions/. If you order it
through the publisher, NYU Press, they have a 30% off discount code
(NYUAU30).

*Blurb: **The Two Revolutions* explores how the rise of the internet shaped
transgender identity and activism from the 1980s to the present. Through
extensive archival research and media archeology, Avery Dame-Griff
reconstructs the manifold digital networks of transgender activists,
cross-dressing computer hobbyists, and others interested in gender
nonconformity who incited the second revolution of the title: the
ascendance of “transgender” as an umbrella identity in the mid-1990s.

Dame-Griff argues that digital communications sparked significant momentum
within what would become the transgender movement, but also further
cemented existing power structures. Covering both a historical period that
is largely neglected within the history of computing, and the poorly
understood role of technology in queer and trans social movements, *The Two
Revolutions* offers a new understanding of both revolutions—the internet’s
early development and the structures of communication that would take us to
today’s tipping point of trans visibility politics. Through a history of
how trans people online exploited different digital infrastructures in the
early days of the internet to build a community, *The Two Revolutions*
tells a crucial part of trans history itself.

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Please feel free to reach out if you’re thinking about teaching with it or
interested in reviewing it! It’d be a great fit not just for WGSS or LGBTQ
Studies courses, but also topics courses on political organizing, social
movements, online communities, or web history.

And if you do use any part of it to teach, I encourage you to check out the
Queer Digital History Project’s Exhibits (https://queerdigital.com/exhibits)
and Teaching Guides (https://queerdigital.com/teaching), which offer
resources and ideas for teaching about some of the topics covered in the
book.

Best,
Avery Dame-Griff

-- 
Avery Dame-Griff (he/him/his)
Lecturer, Women's and Gender Studies (Gonzaga University)
Author, *The Two Revolutions: A History of the Transgender Internet* (NYU
Press, August 2023)
Curator, Queer Digital History Project <http://queerdigital.com/>
averydame.net