Dr. Lieks Hettinga is an Assistant Professor in Gender Studies at Utrecht University. Their research is situated at intersections of transgender studies, disability studies, critical theory, and visual culture. Their research examines ways in which artists and activists visualize, represent and/or enact non-normative embodiment, more specifically looking at the intersection of trans and disability visual politics and poetics of the body. Their research interests include trans-crip affinities in critiques of (neo)liberalism and debates about how race and disability underpin and/or trouble contemporary Western consolidations of ‘transgender’ as an identity category. They are currently preparing a monograph based on their PhD dissertation (2021), tentatively titled Appearing Differently: Trans-Crip Aesthetics of Refusal.