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Fakultät Sozialwissenschaften

Holly Patch is presenting her research on trans* vocality in France

flyer for a talk by holly patch © Musi·queer
Dr. Holly Patch is presenting her research on trans* vocality at the seminar "Pensée straight, (im)pensée queer?" [Straight mind, queer (un)thought] of the research group “Musi-queer” at the Université de Lorraine in Metz on 10 June 2025

"Sounding Trans* and Claiming Voice" - Holly Patch

In this talk, I present an ethnographic case study of trans* vocality with the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles (TCLA). I begin by reflecting on my use of interpretative phenomenological analysis as a depathologizing interview method, outlining how I reconstructed singers’ lived epistemologies of (gendered) voice by tracing the mutually constitutive material and symbolic dimensions of their vocal experiences. I then share empirical findings that illustrate how TCLA singers re-encounter their vocal bodies and re-empower their voices through their active, aesthetic, and multisensory engagement of singing together. In particular, I examine how these practices transform how they sense and understand voice and gender. I argue that claiming voice is an intricate process of embodying and incorporating vocal experience into a lived sense of self. This study reveals the individual and collective political, sonic, and embodied claiming of voice by trans* singers.

Discussant: Aron Arnold, PhD

The talk is taking place within the context of the seminar "Pensée straight, (im)pensée queer?" [Straight mind, queer (un)thought] of the research group Musi-queer.

Date: 10 June 25
Time: 14-16:00
Location:  Université de Lorraine, Metz, Campus du Saulcy, Espace Rabelais
(Building SHS), Room Thélème

The talk will also be broadcast online. Register via Email to Catherine Deutsch.

flyer for a talk by holly patch © Musi·queer