Julia Serano

Julia Serano
Residence	Oakland, California
Nationality	American
Education	Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biophysics from Columbia University
Occupation	Evolutionary and developmental biology researcher
Employer	UC Berkeley
Known for	Writer, spoken word performer, trans bi activist, biologist
Website	www.juliaserano.com

Julia Serano is a transgender American writer, spoken-word performer, trans-bi activist, and biologist. Serano currently lives in Oakland, California and is the author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. Her second book, Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, was published on September 10, 2013 by Seal Press.

Her work has appeared in queer, feminist, and pop-culture magazines, including Bitch, Clamor, Kitchen Sink, LiP, make/shift, and Transgender Tapestry. Excerpts of her work have appeared in The Believer and The San Francisco Chronicle, and on NPR.

Based on her insights into gender, Serano has been invited to speak about transgender and trans women’s issues at numerous universities, often at queer-, feminist-, psychology-, and philosophy-themed conferences. Her writings have also been used in teaching materials in gender studies courses across the United States. She has coined several terms that are now used in gender studies courses such as cissexual assumption, oppositional sexism and effemimania.

Early life

Julia Serano, born Tom Serano, first consciously recognized in herself a desire to be female during the late 1970s when she was 11 years old. A few years later, she began crossdressing. At first, she crossdressed secretively, but eventually she started identifying herself openly as a "male crossdresser." Serano attended her first support group for crossdressers in 1994 while living in Kansas.

Soon afterward, Serano moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she met her wife, Dani, in 1998. Around this time, Serano began identifying as not only a crossdresser but also as transgender and bigender. In 2001, she began medically transitioning and identifying as a trans woman.

Other endeavors

Serano is a poetry slam champion and has given spoken-word performances at universities as well as at events such as the National Queer Arts Festival, San Francisco Pride Dyke March and Trans March stages, Ladyfest, outCRY!, Femme 2006 and in The Vagina Monologues. Serano is also the lyricist-guitarist-vocalist for the pop trio Bitesize.

Serano organizes and hosts GenderEnders, a performance series that features the work of transgender, intersex, and genderqueer artists and allies. It has produced 20 shows. Serano received a grant to curate "The Penis Issue: Trans and Intersex Women Speak Their Minds," a spoken-word event, as part of the 2007 National Queer Arts Festival.

Serano is also a biologist who works as a researcher at UC Berkeley in the field of evolutionary and developmental biology. She received her doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University. Among her discoveries is K10 transport/localisation element (TLS) in Drosophila melanogaster.

External links

• Official website
• Julia's writing on feministing.com