The Terrible We

“This imperative, timely, and necessary contribution to trans studies, disability studies, and mad studies does the kind of meta-level thinking about the ongoing genealogies of contestation and consolidation that grant trans studies institutional and political legitimacy. Cameron Awkward-Rich refuses to simply recite debates about the relationships among transness, trans studies and feminism, and trans studies and queer theory; he thinks through the unspoken and elided disavowals at work within them. Awkward-Rich is the kind of critical genealogist we need in the longue durée of the supposed trans tipping point.” - Hil Malatino, author of Side Affects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad

“Cameron Awkward-Rich intervenes in this critical moment in trans studies through a discerning, generous, and imaginative rereading of the debates, texts, and archives that have provided trans studies with its initial anchors. Reflecting on and resituating the early archive and critical practices of trans studies through a capacious and nuanced understanding of the field’s formative gestures, The Terrible We is a pathbreaking work.” - Jian Neo Chen, author of Trans Exploits: Trans of Color Cultures and Technologies in Movement

"In many ways, [The Terrible We] is about trans studies as a field, to advocate ‘for a version of trans studies that can acknowledge and think with a more expansive we’, but it also holds up a mirror to dynamics within trans activism and communities. ... With the pressure to provide trans representation that depicts trans joy, showing to cisgender audiences that we are ‘not sick’, this book provides a counter, encouraging us to sit with ‘maladjusted’ trans people instead of attempting to leave us behind."

“The Terrible We serves as an important guide for those interested in new ways of viewing trans life in both its positive and negative aspects and those wanting to use everyday archives in a method that is more interested in fractures and gaps rather than acceptance and completion.” - Jacob Debrock, TSQ

"While the interruption of trans thought’s methodological distancing from disability is the central project of The Terrible We, a key intervention is also the book’s framing of the relation between trans and feminist thought. Awkward-Rich traces the tense relation between them, and reads this relation from the position of depression." - Stephanie Clare, Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory

"One might not expect a book about bad feelings and mad habits to be a joy to read, but The Terrible We is beautifully written and important. . . . Honest, patient, and calling the reader to critically revisit how the splitting of trans from madness and disability has robbed trans discourse of important history and also depth, The Terrible We is a challenging and very much necessary book relevant to several intersecting constituencies and academic disciplines." - Claudia Schippert, Lateral