A DIY Guide to Gender Hacking
Wednesday 15 October 2025, 5pm
Seminar Room 11, St Anne's College
All welcome
Gender is like a slingshot. Picture a rubber band stretching as far back as it can go – do you think you can hit the bullseye? A DIY Guide to Gender Hacking explores gender exploration at the intersection of theory, DIY and failing fun. In this interactive seminar, Santi inspires ways for exploring gender outside the confines of mainstream discourse where participants are invited to engage with gender hacking as an everyday practice, learn about the creative process behind Santi’s very first digital publication funded by Arts Council England, and to revel in questioning gender more, while relying on finding answers less.
The event structure is a lecture delivered by Santi followed by a conversation with Tala Ross, DPhil Student and Human Computer Interaction researcher at the University of Oxford, and an opportunity for an audience Q+A.
Santi S. is a multidisciplinary creative and the Founder and Creative Director of G(end)er Swap –- the UK's first LGBTQ+ style outreach organisation. Their work (workshops, writing, performance) focuses on DIY style, craft and aesthetics as a medium for (trans) identity exploration and experimentation. They create and curate queer style workshops, pop ups and digital resources across the UK, and create safer spaces for trans+ people to experiment with and find freedom in self-expression. Santi completed a MSt in Women’s Studies as a Memorial Jenkins Scholar at Oxford University, Regents Park College in 2018. Their research focused on trans fashion activism on social media. Santi’s style work and initiatives have been featured in Bricks and Hunger Magazine, Open Democracy, Novara Media and has been recognised by the National Diversity Awards, Social Enterprise UK and more. A DIY Guide to Gender Hacking is Santi’s first independent writing project, supported by Arts Council England as a recipient of the Develop Your Own Creative Practice Grant (2024/25).
Tala Ross is a DPhil Student and Human Computer Interaction researcher at the University of Oxford. In their research they explore how current social media platforms both support and simultaneously hinder trans care practices, and how future platforms could better support trans care. Over the summer, Tala ran a series of zine making workshops with groups of trans people across the UK to explore how they envision social media platforms supporting their needs and care practices. Through the co-creation of these zines, they aim to build hope for alternative futures, and inform work towards hacking these futures in the present.
