Sam Bourcier
{{Short description|French sociologist and docent}}
{{Orphan|date=February 2023}}
Sam Bourcier is a French sociologist and lecturer at Charles de Gaulle University – Lille III.{{Cite web |last=Marie-helene |first=Bourcier |title=Marie-helene BOURCIER - Université de Lille |url=https://pro.univ-lille.fr/marie-helene-bourcier |access-date=2023-02-22 |website=pro.univ-lille.fr |language=fr}} They are a transfeminist and queer activist. According to Bourcier's twitter, they use the French gender-neutral neopronoun iel.{{Cite web |last=Bourcier |first=Sam |title=Sam Bourcier (@mhbourcier1) |url=https://twitter.com/mhbourcier1 |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=Twitter |language=en}}
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.
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."{{Cite web |last=Marie-Hélène |first=Bourcier |date=2004-01-28 |title=Cultural studies et politiques de la discipline : talk dirty to me! |url=https://www.multitudes.net/cultural-studies-et-politiques-de/ |access-date=2023-02-22 |website=multitudes |language=fr-FR}}
Bourcier has played an important role in the introduction of queer theory into France{{Cite web |last=Bardou |first=Florian |title=En France, les "Queer studies" au ban de la fac |url=https://www.liberation.fr/debats/2016/10/12/en-france-les-queer-studies-au-ban-de-la-fac_1521522/ |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=Libération |language=fr}} through public seminars (the "Q Seminars," which ran from 1996 to 1998){{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44618104 |title=Q comme queer : les séminaires Q du Zoo (1996-1997) |date=1998 |publisher=Gai Kitsch Camp |others=Marie-Hélène Bourcier, Zoo |isbn=2-908050-46-3 |location=Lille |oclc=44618104}} and their trilogy Queer Zones (2001–2006).{{Cite book |last=Bourcier |first=Sam |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1078141677 |title=Queer zones : la trilogie |date=2018 |others=Paul B. Preciado |isbn=978-2-35480-174-8 |location=Paris |oclc=1078141677}} 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,{{Cite web |title=Recherche alumni {{!}} Commission Franco-Américaine Fulbright |url=https://fulbright-france.org/recherche-alumni?nom=Bourcier&prenom=Marie-H%25C3%25A9l%25C3%25A8ne&anee_bourse=&origin=&accuil=&discipline=&page=1 |access-date=2023-02-22 |website=fulbright-france.org}} with the post-doctoral subject Queer Theory and French Philosophy: The Politics of Inverted Translation.{{Cite web |title=Marie-Helene Bourcier {{!}} Fulbright Scholar Program |url=https://fulbrightscholars.org/grantee/marie-helene-bourcier |access-date=2023-02-22 |website=fulbrightscholars.org}}{{Cite web |title=On a parlé théorie queer avec Sam Bourcier |url=https://www.vice.com/fr/article/on-a-parle-theorie-queer-avec-sam-bourcier/ |access-date=2023-02-22 |website=Vice.com |date=16 November 2018 |language=fr}}
In 2002, Bourcier founded the group Archilesb, which advocates for the inclusion of lesbian history in Paris's planned gay history archive centre.{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/972902161 |title=Dictionnaire des féministes : France, XVIIIe-XXIe siècle |others=Christine Bard, Sylvie Chaperon |date=2017 |isbn=978-2-13-078720-4 |pages=195–197 |oclc=972902161}} 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.{{Cite journal |last=Bourcier |first=Marie-Hélène |date=January 2012 |title=Cultural translation, politics of disempowerment and the reinvention of queer power and politics |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363460711432107 |journal=Sexualities |language=en |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=93–109 |doi=10.1177/1363460711432107 |s2cid=146775169 |issn=1363-4607|url-access=subscription }}
References
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