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. His first book, Going Stealth: Transgender Politics and U.S. Surveillance Practices (Duke University Press, 2019) examines the problem of visibility in trans politics, arguing that the scrutinizing of gender nonconformity is motivated less by explicit transgender identities than by the perceived threat that gender nonconformity poses to the U.S. racial and security state. Prof. Beauchamp's newer research brings trans studies and surveillance studies into conversation with the environmental humanities. His writing appears in journals including GLQ, Feminist Formations, Radical History Review, and Surveillance & Society, as well as several edited book collections. 

Prof. Beauchamp was named a Helen Corley Petit Scholar for 2019-2020, an award supporting scholarship and teaching for early-career faculty in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and a Conrad Humanities Scholar for 2020-2025, which recognizes outstanding associate professors in the College. He was also awarded a 2021-2022 LAS Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. During academic years 2019-2021, he was a Resident Associate at the Center for Advanced Study at Illinois, where he co-directed the CAS event series on the theme of Abolition. When not at work, he most enjoys spending time outdoors, and is an avid long-distance hiker.