Biography
Toby Beauchamp is Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and affiliate faculty in the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His first book, Going Stealth: Transgender Politics and U.S. Surveillance Practices (Duke University Press, 2019) examines the problem of visibility in trans politics, arguing that the scrutinizing of gender nonconformity is motivated less by explicit transgender identities than by the perceived threat that gender nonconformity poses to the U.S. racial and security state. His current book project, Trans Studies for Grim Times, considers the relationship between trans politics and authoritarianism. His writing appears in journals including GLQ, Feminist Formations, Radical History Review, and Surveillance & Society, as well as several edited book collections.
Prof. Beauchamp was named a Helen Corley Petit Scholar for 2019-2020, an award supporting scholarship and teaching for early-career faculty in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and a Conrad Humanities Scholar for 2020-2025, which recognizes outstanding associate professors in the College. He also received a 2021-2022 LAS Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. During academic years 2019-2021, he was a Resident Associate at the Center for Advanced Study at Illinois, where he co-directed the CAS event series on the theme of Abolition. When not at work, he most enjoys spending time outdoors, and is an avid long-distance hiker.
Research Interests
Transgender and queer theory
Transnational feminist cultural studies
Disability studies
Feminist pedagogies
Education
Ph.D., University of California, Davis | Cultural Studies, Designated Emphasis in Feminist Theory
B.A., University of Florida | Interdisciplinary Studies, Concentration in Women's Studies
Awards and Honors
Big Ten Academic Alliance, LAS Dean's Grant, 2024-2027
Larine Y. Cowan Award for Advocacy for LGBTQ Affairs, 2023-2024
LAS Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2021-2022
Conrad Humanities Scholar, 2020-2025
Resident Associate, Center for Advanced Study, 2019-2021
Helen Corley Petit Scholar, 2019-2020
Lionel Cantú Memorial Fellow, UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, UC San Diego, 2010-2012
Sylvia Rivera Award for best publication in transgender studies, Center for Lesbian & Gay Studies at CUNY, 2009
Courses Taught
GWS 100: Introduction to Gender & Women's Studies
GWS 202: Sexualities
GWS 255: Queer Lives, Queer Politics
GWS 366: Feminist Disability Studies
GWS 470: Transgender Studies
GWS 498: Senior Seminar
GWS 540: Intersectional Pedagogies
GWS 590: Critical Disability Studies
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Professor, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Highlighted Publications
Beauchamp, T. C. (2019). Going Stealth: Transgender Politics and U.S. Surveillance Practices. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002659
Recent Publications
Beauchamp, T. (2022). Artful Concealment and Strategic Visibility: Transgender Bodies and U.S. State Surveillance After 9/11. In S. Stryker, & D. McCarthy Blackston (Eds.), The Transgender Studies Reader Remix (pp. 329-339). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003206255-35
Beauchamp, T. (2022). Walking the Line: Borderlands and the Politics of Hiking. Qualitative Inquiry, 28(2), 177-186. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004211042814
Kapadia, R. K., & Beauchamp, T. (2022). Outside, Looking In: Alternative Legacies and Futures for Surveillance Studies. Surveillance and Society, 20(4), 406-412. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v20i4.15898
Aizura, A. Z., Bey, M., Beauchamp, T., Ellison, T., Gill-Peterson, J., & Steinbock, E. (2020). Thinking with trans now. Social Text, 38(4), 125-147. https://doi.org/10.1215/01642472-8680478
Beauchamp, T. (2020). Beyond the “Pine Pig”: Reimagining Protection through the US National Park Ranger. Radical History Review, 2020(137), 96-118. https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-8092798