Transcendents: Spirit Mediums in Burma and Thailand

(Hardback)

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In collaboration with Dr. Eli Coleman, professor and director of the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota, Transcendents studies the phenomenon of gender variance among the spirit cults of Burma and Thailand. This book combines a raw, personal, photographic standpoint with an anthropological and sexological perspective on the genderfluid spirit mediums in Thailand and Burma.

Mariette Pathy Allen has been a pioneering force in gender consciousness, contributing to numerous cultural and academic publications about gender variance and lecturing worldwide.

Dr. Eli Coleman is a founding editor of the International Journal of Transgenderism and past president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

Zackary Druckeris an award-winning cultural producer, and trans woman who breaks down the way we think about gender.

Reviews

Compassionate without being sentimental, Allens photographs challenge our conceptualization of gender, and serve as a counternarrative to the often sensational and exploitative depictions of transgender lives in the media.,
- Aperture, December 15, 2017
" ...a study of liminal spaces; between genders, between countries, between past and present, and even between this world and the next.,"
- Musee Magazine, December 13, 2017
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Author Bio

Zackary Drucker is an independent artist, cultural producer, and trans woman who breaks down the way we think about gender, sexuality, and seeing. She has performed and exhibited her work internationally in museums, galleries, and film festivals including the Whitney Biennial 2014, MoMA PS1, Hammer Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, MCA San Diego, and SF MoMA, among others. Drucker is an Emmy-nominated Producer for the docu-series This Is Me, as well as a Producer on Golden Globe and Emmy-winning Transparent. Eli Coleman In 2014 Mariette Pathy Allen teamed up with Dr. Eli Coleman, professor and director of the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota Medical School to explore the phenomenon of gender variance among the spirit cults of Burma and Thailand. He studies the phenomenon from an anthropological and sexological perspective and Mariette studies it through her lens. Professor Coleman is a well-known scientist in the study of gender identity and sexual orientation. He holds the first and only endowed academic chair in sexual health. In addition, he is one of the founding editors of the International Journal of Transgenderism and one of the past presidents of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association). He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Gold Medal for his lifetime contributions to the field of sexual health by the World Association for Sexual Health. Mariette Pathy Allen Is a photographer, writer, speaker and activist based in New York City. Her photographs are in public and private collections and are exhibited internationally. In addition, she make numerous photographic presentations in the US and abroad. Her work is being archived at Duke Universitys Rare Book and manuscript Library and The Sallie Bingham Center for Womens studies. Starting in 1978, she have been involved with people who are gender non-conforming. Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love them, was published in 1989 by E. P. Dutton, Inc, It chronicles, through photographs and interviews, people from all over the USA living in the daylight of everyday life. In 2004, her second book, The Gender Frontier, published by Kehrer, won the Lambda Literary Award in the transgender/genderqueer category. It documents events, political activism, youth, and the range of people identifying as gender non-conformists. In 2012, she had the privilege of working in Cuba with transgender people from across the country. This work became TransCuba, published by Daylight Books in 2014. As a result of the success of TransCuba, Daylight will publish Transcendent: Spiritual Mediums in Burma and Thailand.