When developing transnational perspectives in gender studies we have – arguably even more than in other gender studies contexts – to question our terminology. This might include to look for political angles, e.g. in which contexts is a term used? Is there a political agenda or meaning connected to it? Is it coined by a social movement or is it a term a specific government is using? What is the epistemic dimension of a specific term? For which theoretical context does a term or a terminology speak? 

 

“Labels are limiting but they do form parts of our identity. But it’s such a mind* because words mean so many different things to so many different people” – says Unity Bond to Prolly Plebs and Blaq Beauty in the webseries ‘The Foxy Five’, bringing lessons from intersectional feminism in post-Apartheid South Africa. For more negotiations and inspirations, visit Gender Medithek or via Youtube. 

 

For more strictly academic enquiries, you find an annotated list of glossaries that might answer questions as those above and might facilitate discernment of discourses.

 

Also, transnational perspectives in gender studies means working and communicating in bi- or multilingual settings and we have to ask if there are shifts in meanings that a term/terminology undergoes between languages. For reflections on this, please see the text on Translanguaging by Libby Meintjes.

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In terms of glossaries there are books in print/paid access, e.g. the Oxford Dictionary of Gender Studies, but there are also a number available open-access online. These include (along with our annotations):