Introduction: In post-Yugoslav trans worlds

This chapter sets the stage for the volume by providing insights into the ways in which the intensification of trans-related activist engagement has manifested itself in the politically dynamic post-Yugoslav region. We start by entwining our biographical positionalities with major conceptual instruments of contemporary transnational trans studies to both account for the processes that brought us together and carve a niche for our book in Eastern European social sciences and humanities and, in particular, feminist research and queer and trans studies. We then outline the most important political developments through which trans activisms across the region have gained visibility and emancipated themselves from the more generic LGBT initiatives, also shedding a new light on trans lives and artistic endeavours. This has opened a field of political contention that both encompasses and goes beyond activist circles. As we introduce the central arguments of the ensuing chapters, we reflect upon the challenges of conceptual translation within a global economy of knowledge that centralises the Global North and especially Anglo-American trans studies. Facing an intellectual and political scene in which understanding global social relations becomes important for taking trans intellectual work forward, we argue in favour of transnationally informed, but locally embedded and intersectionally sensitive, empirical analysis.