Unsafe: The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash

• In-person event
• Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre , Ottawa , ON , K2P 0E2

Please join us for an exciting public talk and workshop with Sarah Lamble, Professor of Criminology and Queer Theory (Birkbeck College, UCL) as they launch their book, Unsafe: The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash, newly published (and 40% off until 21 August) with Haymarket Books.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The fiercest battles over gender today aren’t just about identity or womanhood—but about punishment, fear, and control.

The twenty-first century “gender wars” have been driven by a powerful and seductive narrative: that safety can be secured through exclusion, surveillance, and the policing of difference. These punitive logics have gained momentum across the political spectrum, fueling an anti-trans backlash and distorting the meaning of safety itself.

Unsafe is a clear-eyed and decisive challenge to the toxic ideas at the heart of this backlash. With patient rigour, Lamble exposes how carceral approaches to safety fail to address root causes of harm, ultimately deepening social divisions and legitimising new forms of violence and control.

Drawing on feminist and queer traditions as well as their experience organizing against prisons and policing, Lamble makes a principled case for a different vision: one where safety is not built on punishment but on collective care, radical solidarity, and transformative justice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lamble is a community organizer and Professor of Criminology and Queer Theory at Birkbeck, University of London. Their work explores questions of gender, sexuality, and justice with a focus on feminist and abolitionist alternatives to prisons, police, and punishment. They are based in London.

ABOUT THE EVENT

This event will also feature responses by local activists and intellectuals. Following the presentations there will be a Q&A, followed by a light vegetarian meal with gluten free options. The event will be held in the Parlour Room of Dominion-Chalmers, which is accessible by an elevator. Ramp access to the entrance of the building is available off the parking lot on Lisgar. Automated real-time captioning will be provided.

SPONSORS

This event is hosted by the Department of Law and Legal Studies (Carleton University) and co-sponsored by  the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies (University of Ottawa), the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation (Carleton), the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Carleton), the Ottawa Trans Library, the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project (CPEP), and Octopus Books.