Kortney Ryan Ziegler (born December 15, 1981) is an American entrepreneur, filmmaker, visual artist, blogger, writer, and scholar based in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. His artistic and academic work focuses on

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

trans issues The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health c ...

, body image, racialized sexualities, gender, performance and black queer theory.

Biography

Ziegler was born in

Compton, California Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated south of downtown Los Angeles. Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and, on May 11, 1888, was the eighth city in Los Angeles County to incorporat ...

. Raised in a family of single black women, his mother struggled with mental illness and drug abuse. His father was absent and he lived with three alcoholic uncles who inflicted physical and emotional abuse on the women in his family. He was the first in his family to attend post-secondary institution. He went on to pursue his master's degree at San Francisco State University and later his PhD at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. During this time, he slowly began his transition, though when he began his doctoral program he checked female. In his third year he began to identify as

genderqueer Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

and started taking hormones. In 2011 he began to defend his dissertation on queer, black and Latino filmmakers. He was the first person to receive the PhD in African-American studies from

. He currently resides in

Career

Blogging

''blac (k) ademic''

From 2003 to 2006, Ziegler maintained a popular black queer feminist blog, ''blac (k) ademic''. The blog tackled topics such as gender and sexuality from a young black queer academic perspective, eventually becoming one of the top blogs in the feminist blogsphere. Ziegler endured much controversy due to his radical stance that positioned the experiences of women of color as the locus of his feminist analysis. Ziegler shut down the blog due to the many negative comments he was receiving. ''Blac (k) ademic'' went on to receive the award for Best Topical Blog in the first annual Black Weblog Awards in 2006. It relaunched in November 2012 and was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award and a Transguy Community Award.

Film

''STILL BLACK: a Portrait of Black Transmen''

Premiering in 2008, ''STILL BLACK: a Portrait of Black Transmen'' was conceived during the years Ziegler was a doctoral student in the department of African-American studies at

. The film explores the theme of female to male transgender transition in the African American community. Ziegler and his producer, Awilda Rodriguez Lora, provided the initial financial investment to get the project off the ground. They employed a grassroots fundraising method, using

social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

to secure funds to complete the project. Upon release to the queer film festival circuit, the film became one of the most sought after and talked about films representing the

trans man A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that incl ...

-of-color experience, showing to sold-out crowds in cities such as Los Angeles, Toronto, Seattle, Chicago, and Tel-Aviv. The film received an Isaac Julien Experimental Award from Queer Black Cinema International Music Festival and an Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary in the ReelOut Queer Film + Video Festival.

Technology

In 2013, Ziegler launched Trans*H4ck, an organizational hub for trans people collaborating on technical projects. It first began as a two hack-a-thon which was aimed to address specific issues in the transgender community. During the hack-a-thon developers, programmers, designers, entrepreneurs, and community members came together to brainstorm new ideas and create technological advances digital tools to better the trans community. This was used as digital activist movement to help spread the word of an underrepresented community and raise money through crowdfunding. Over the two day hack-a-thon partners got to know each other, and heard about the social injustices facing transgender and non gender-conforming people. Along with Tiffany Mikell, he also founded BSMdotCo, an educational technology startup company. Together they created Aerial Spaces. This is a video based forum which allows educators to reach a wider audience of learners. In 2017, Ziegler and Mikell cofounded Appolition.us in order to help incarcerated Black people return to their families by allowing users to round up purchases to the nearest dollar and donate the funds to bail funding efforts. The app was supported through crowdfunding after a tweet from Ziegler got attention during July 2017.

Community outreach

In 2011 he became the co-owner of Halmoni, a vintage boutique that promotes healthy body positivity and self-love for women. In 2013 Ziegler also founded Who We Know, a group that focuses on creating products and developing initiatives to economically empower the transgender color community.

Honors and awards

* 2006 Best Topical Blog,

Black Weblog Awards The Black Weblog Awards was an online awards event which recognizes bloggers of African-American descent for their contributions in blogging, video blogging, and podcasting. The Black Weblog Awards started in 2005 with 11 categories, and grew to ...

- "blac (k) ademic" * 2009 Best Documentary, Reelout Queer Film + Video Festival - '' STILL BLACK: a portrait of black transmen'' * Trans 100 Honoree * 2013 GLAAD Media Award Nomination for Outstanding Blog * 2013 Empowerment Award, Black Transmen, Inc. * 2013 Outstanding Transgender Service, The Esteem Awards * 2013 Top 40 under 40 LGBT Activist, ''The Advocate'' * 2013 Authentic Life Award, Transgender Law Center * 2017 Diablo magazine's 40 Under 40 award winner

References

External links

blackademic.com

Kortney Ziegler at
Model View Culture * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ziegler, Kortney Ryan 1980 births Living people American filmmakers African-American feminists American feminists Male feminists Men and masculinities scholars Transgender male artists Transgender male writers American transgender writers LGBT African Americans LGBT people from California Transfeminists People from Compton, California Artists from Oakland, California Queer artists Queer feminists Queer men Queer theorists Queer writers University of California, Santa Cruz alumni San Francisco State University alumni Northeastern University alumni Feminist bloggers American male bloggers American bloggers