Speaker
Description
Note: Presentation is held in English but will provide slides with Japanese text.
Description:
In early 2022, when my body mysteriously gave way to a common chronic illness with an unpronounceable name, the imagined trajectory of my life was suddenly altered beyond fathom. The brain which I had nurtured through many academic degrees and relied on for my ‘livelihood’ as a researcher, and the limbs which I relied on to navigate public life as a social and productive being, became unrecognisable in their new state of variable and reduced function. Moreover, nearly constant pain became my closest acquaintance, tempting me into regular bouts of uncharacteristic pessimism. With a prognosis of ‘miracles can happen, but don’t hold your breath’, I had to learn how to live with a self I had never imagined becoming.
In my presentation, I will describe how I have embarked on the journey to accept my futurescape as a disabled person, using lessons learnt through queer- and trans-becoming. From fashioning strategies of resilience to finding kinship through community advocacy, I will reflect on how the tools I developed to find queer/trans joy have transferred over to not only learning to appreciate my brokenness but discovering new abilities of immeasurable value.
