Trans and gender diverse experiences

'Talking about: trans and gender diverse experiences' is an ongoing initiative of the UQ Ally Action Committee to provide space and awareness on the specific challenges and experiences of trans and gender diverse people.

It is well documented that trans and gender diverse people face a unique set of challenges, including (but not limited to) lower mental health outcomes, and higher instances of discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Yet these disparities persist.

Through this series, we hope to provide a forum for sharing research on issues facing trans and gender diverse people, to help UQ staff and students better support LGBTQIA+ inclusion and to ensure UQ is a place where we are all free to be our authentic selves.

Talking about: trans and gender diverse experiences

Dr Magalí Pérez Riedel

Dr Magalí Pérez Riedel is a researcher in social communication. This webinar is based on Magali's doctoral dissertation, where she focused on religious-based discrimination (among other things) against LGBTQ people in online spaces in Argentina. The second part of her presentation explores the educational experiences of trans people who are completing their secondary studies.

Dr Karin Selberg 

Dr. Karin Selberg is an academic in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry and is also a part of the UQ Ally Action Committee. Dr Selberg predominantly focuses on trans and queer theory, trans history, and the medicalisation of trans people in Western society. This is an informal conversation with her father, Marianne Berg, about what life was like as a trans woman in Sweden during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Karin's father is politically active in the swedish trans movement and was also actively engaged in the Foundation for Full Personality Expression – Sweden (FPE-S).

Dr Jenny Setchell

Dr Jenny Setchell is an NHMRC Research Fellow in Physiotherapy. Her research interests include post-structuralist critical perspectives on healthcare broadly, and physiotherapy specifically. She has done significant research on Trans and non-binary bodies in physiotherapy. This webinar focuses on improving health professional’s reflexivity relating to gender, reducing unintended assumptions, blind spots, and stigma as well as shedding light on areas where physio and non-binary and Trans people might meet.

Dr Kate Power

Dr Kate Power is an applied linguist, whose research and teaching focus is on how meaning is made, identities and relationships constructed, and power wielded in diverse academic, organizational, and social contexts. Her current research addresses economic, religious, and academic discourses, with particular sensitivity to gender and sexuality.

This webinar is based on a chapter of Kate’s soon-to-be published book chapter on incorporating transgender studies in the academic writing classroom. She touches on the identity challenges of Trans and LGBTQIA+ students beginning their university journey and explores options for “transgendering the academy”.

She also invites a former colleague of hers, Dr Mary Ann Saunders, a lecturer in the School of Journalism, Writing and Media at the University of British Columbia to share her coming out story and her own personal experiences within the higher education sector.