Susan Stryker, Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership, joins with queer, Bay Area-based author, Rabih Alameddine, to discuss his latest novel, The Wrong End of The Telescope (2021). The novel centers around trans protagonist, Mina Simpson, a Lebanese doctor, who arrives at the infamous Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece, after being urgently summoned for help. The wide ranging discussion of Rabih’s work and career will include a reading from the new book and an open-ended Q&A. Read more about Rabih Alameddine’s work at rabihalameddine.com

Rabih Alameddine is the author of the novels The Wrong End of the Telescope; The Angel of History; An Unnecessary Woman; The Hakawati; I, the Divine; and Koolaids; as well as the story collection The Perv. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages, and his writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Guardian, and other publications. His honors include a Lannan Fiction Award, a John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, a Harold Washington Literary Award, a Lambda Literary Award, two Arab American Book Awards, both a California and a Northern California Book Award, a Prix Femina, a Rome Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He divides his time between his bedroom and his living room.

We Are The Voices is a Mellon Foundation Higher Learning funded project linking Mills College students and faculty with poets and scholars working in Oakland and beyond.

The Mills College Trans Studies Speakers Series (MCTSSS), hosted by Emmy-Award winner Susan Stryker, Barbara Lee Distinguished Visiting Professor in Women’s Leadership, offers a regular public forum for exploring transgender issues with some of today’s leading thinkers, artists, and activists. All Trans Studies Speaker Series events are being held online and are free and open to the public. Be sure to check individual event listings to confirm the start time.

MCTSSS is co-sponsored by Trans Studies @ Mills College, Distinguished Visiting Professor Susan Stryker, Mills Performing Arts, and the History and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Programs at Mills College.

Contact: TransSpeakerSeries@mills.edu for any questions.