Toby Beauchamp

Toby Beauchamp is Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and affiliate faculty in the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign within the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. His interdisciplinary work bridges transgender studies, surveillance studies, and environmental humanities through critical analysis of state power and embodied experience.

His educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Cultural Studies with Designated Emphasis in Feminist Theory, University of California, Davis
• B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies with Concentration in Women's Studies, University of Florida

Beauchamp's research centers on transgender and queer theory, transnational feminist cultural studies, and science and technology studies. His acclaimed book Going Stealth: Transgender Politics and U.S. Surveillance Practices (Duke University Press, 2019) analyzes how gender nonconformity becomes targeted by security apparatuses. Current projects explore intersections between trans studies and environmental humanities, examining synthetic hormones, border ecologies, and hiking trails as sites of political struggle.

His publication trends reveal a strategic expansion from surveillance studies into environmental justice frameworks, consistently centering trans experiences within broader analyses of state violence, ecological destruction, and spatial politics across U.S. borderlands and national parks.

Major recognitions include:

• Conrad Humanities Scholar (2020-2025)
• Resident Associate, Center for Advanced Study (2019-2021)
• Helen Corley Petit Scholar (2019-2020)
• Sylvia Rivera Award (2009)

Beauchamp teaches core GWS curriculum including Introduction to Gender & Women's Studies, Queer Lives/Politics, Transgender Studies, and Feminist Disability Studies. His Center for Advanced Study residency provided dedicated research support during 2019-2021, while his co-direction of the CAS Abolition event series with A. Naomi Paik demonstrates institutional commitment to transformative scholarship.

His personal engagement with long-distance hiking directly informs his scholarly investigations of borderlands and trail politics, embodying the praxis of merging academic work with lived environmental experience.