Transfeminist scholars on the verge of a nervous break down

Typically, when researchers in social sciences reflect upon political engagement and the implications of their work on social transformation, they focus on how their research affects the social reality and the lives of the the people they work “on”, “with”, or “for.” These are quite often marginalized groups. In this paper, we would like to critically address the issue from the point of view of how the material and cultural conditions of academic work affect us - the researchers. We will highlight that the discipline required by the academic labor market produces a kind of subjectivity that actually hinders the social transformation we are seeking as queer activists, although the content of our research may be consistent with it and may even seem to foster it. It is not by accident that the urge to address the issue in this terms comes from the Italian context, where the conditions of work in general and academic work in particular have been degenerating rapidly over the past ten years. At the same time, the privatization of university seems to be a global trend, such that our analysis may be of interest also for Brazilian feminist and queer researchers. We are writing as members of SomMovimento NazioAnale, a network of transfeminist queer collectives and single activists based in various parts of Italy, also including some activists that used to be based in Italy and emigrated in other European countries for economic reasons. Some people within this network work in the academy; almost all are in very precarious conditions. Recently, the network started a discussion about the relationship between academic work and activism