Susan Stryker is a leading scholar of Transgender History. She is a Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, a political activist and an author. She formally was the director of the Institute for LGBT Studies and is the founder of the Transgender Studies Initiative at the University of Arizona. She is an openly lesbian and transgender woman, coming out shortly after she received her doctorate degree.

Famously, she wrote her scholarly article, "My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix" after delivering a speech performance at a three-day academic conference at California State University, San Marcos. This performance was known as “Rage Across the Disciplines,” which took transphobic speech of comparing transsexual or transgender people to Frankenstein’s Monster, which is TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) rhetoric, and turned it on its head to become a mirror at those who would speak hatred and judgment against transgender people. The final closing words of which are quoted here:

“Heed my words, and you may well discover the seams and sutures in yourself.”

She is currently on leave and is working on a new book, Cross-Dressing for Empire: Gender and Performance at the Bohemian Grove.