Living like oneself: negotiating trans masculinities in Kyūshū between authenticity and normative expectations
Lecture by Caterina Pavan
Caterina Pavan's research explores how trans men in Kyūshū, Japan, conceive and express their masculinities, highlighting the diversity of their experiences. Drawing on eleven months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between July 2025 and May 2026, she examines how participants engage with, negotiate, and challenge traditional ideas of masculinity as they navigate their gender affirmation journeys. She argues that gender-affirming treatments, as well as the social and legal recognition of their gender identity, play an important role in helping them to pursue ways to express themselves that they perceive as more authentic.
Event details of
Living like oneself: negotiating trans masculinities in Kyūshū between authenticity and normative expectations
- Date
- 26 November 2026
- Time
- 14:00 -15:30
- Room
- B6.12
About the speaker
Caterina Pavan (they/them) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society at the University of Turin, with a strong interdisciplinary background in Japanese Studies and Cultural Anthropology. They hold a BA in Language, Culture and Society of Asia and Mediterranean Africa and an MA in Language and Civilisation of Asia and Mediterranean Africa from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, as well as an MSc in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology from Leiden University. Their current research interests include gender and sexual minorities in contemporary Japan, as well as masculinities. Their PhD project examines how trans men construct and negotiate their gender identities in Kyūshū.
