Sam Bourcier

Sam Bourcier is a French sociologist and lecturer at Charles de Gaulle University – Lille III.^[1] They are a transfeminist and queer activist. According to Bourcier's twitter, they use the French gender-neutral neopronoun iel.^[2]

They are the author of numerous books and articles on queer cultures, theories and politics, sexual subcultures (such as BDSM), feminism, transfeminism, minorities, and identity politics in France and abroad.^[3]

Life

Sam Bourcier was born Marie-Hélène Bourcier on 30 October 1963 in Berlin, where their father was an infantry colonel. They studied at the Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'honneur in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Bourcier later studied at the École Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud (class of 1982), where they defended a doctoral thesis in 1988. They have described themself as the "child of French post-structuralism."^[4]

Bourcier has played an important role in the introduction of queer theory into France^[5] through public seminars (the "Q Seminars," which ran from 1996 to 1998)^[6] and their trilogy Queer Zones (2001–2006).^[7] They also have translated the work of French-American writer Monique Wittig, Italian-American academic Teresa de Lauretis and the Spanish writer Paul B. Preciado into French.

From September 2000 to June 2001, Bourcier was invited to New York University as part of a Fulbright fellowship,^[8] with the post-doctoral subject Queer Theory and French Philosophy: The Politics of Inverted Translation.^[9][3]

In 2002, Bourcier founded the group Archilesb, which advocates for the inclusion of lesbian history in Paris's planned gay history archive centre.^[10] More broadly, Bourcier has criticised exclusion within LGBTQI communities.

Although Bourcier underwent a Lacanian analysis for seven years, they have since taken a public position against Lacanianism and the psychiatrization of trans identity.^[11]