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2025 Speakers

Chloe Turner - Visiting Researcher

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Chloe Turner

MANUFACTURED DOUBT:
Mapping UK Transgender Disinformation


Tuesday, May 27, 2025
2:30 PM - 4:00 PM PDT
Cornett A317 & Online 

 

Transgender disinformation is information intentionally produced to mislead public understanding of transgender populations, including strategic fabrication of facts, methodical data manipulation, selective statistical representation, intentionally decontextualised research conclusions, and the use of dubious or misappropriated sources, among other tactics. The intention of such disinformation is to manufacture uncertainty, cultivate fear and distrust, and—with increasing strategic precision—direct coordinated pressure campaigns against transgender people and the supportive ecosystems surrounding transgender communities: affirming parents and partners, evidence-based healthcare practitioners, responsive local governance structures, and the cultural institutions. This lecture looks at UK transgender disinformation narratives, tactics, and the illusions it uses to make such claims stick and spread to create disinformation afterlives that continue to shape public discourse long after their original contexts have dissolved.

Chloe Turner is a trans writer and researcher currently completing a PhD with the Centre for Feminist Research, Goldsmiths University of London on transgender disinformation. Turner's writing on trans studies can be found or forthcoming in the European Journal of Cultural Studies, Culture Health & Sexuality, The Geographical Journal, Media Theory, The Sociological Review and New Sociological Perspectives. Turner has previously been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University, New York City and at present teaches queer and transgender studies at Central Saint Martins, London. Turner is the Governance and Policy Lead of The Museum of Transology, the largest collection of material culture of transgender, non-binary and intersex lives in the world. Turner writes a regular substack on trans politics titled: WHIPLASH.

Aino Pihlak - Visiting Researcher

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Aino Pihlak

PUTTING THE FEMME IN FEMINIST:
Trans Feminism & the 'Male Lesbian'
in the American Second Wave


Thursday, May 22, 2025
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM PDT
Cornett A317 & Online 

 

A slur, a joke, or a case of mistaken identity? Surely the ‘male lesbian’ is one of these. Yet this term’s actual herstory is far more interesting. Throughout American feminism’s Second Wave, potentially thousands of trans femmes identified this way in North America and Europe. The lesbian feminism articulated by them in the 1970s constitutes one of the most enduring and intellectually significant subsets of lesbian feminism to come out of the Second Wave. Join trans femme historian Aino Pihlak for her talk about the trans lesbian feminism first developed by Sally Douglas in 1970 and then popularized through the Salmacis Society. The herstory of Salmacis, Sally Douglas, and the “male lesbian,” disrupts dominant ideas of the supposed antagonisms between “trans” and “lesbian” in the 1970s. Indeed, the distinctly trans femme led, sex-positive, lesbian femme-inism of the organisation can reanimate lesbian feminism today.

Aino Pihlak is a trans woman and emerging social historian who studies past articulations of trans feminine existence. In addition to her interest in trans feminine porn studies, she is a scholar of twentieth-century, Anglophone, and overwhelmingly white, trans feminine subcultural periodical networks. She hopes her analyses of the complexities and messiness of past trans lives honours those who built the path she now walks on.

John Fenaughty - Visiting Researcher

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John Fenaughty

The Benefits of Puberty Blocking Medications:
A provisional analysis of the mental health and social benefits associated with puberty blocker access and use by young people in Aotearoa, New Zealand.


Tuesday, April 15, 2025
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM PDT
UVic Cornett A317 & Online 

The New Zealand Government recently launched a public consultation on the "safety and efficacy" of puberty blockers, a move that appears influenced by political pressure from populist coalition partners and the highly contested UK Cass Review. This talk draws on data from the 2021 Identify Survey, a large national community-based survey of over 4,800 young people aged 14–26 in Aotearoa New Zealand. This presentation shares key findings from a sub-sample of 329 participants who either accessed or wanted access to puberty blockers. Among the 115 young people who had accessed puberty blockers, 87 responded to an open-ended question about how gender-affirming medications had affected their lives. The vast majority (95%) described positive or extremely positive impacts, including improved mental health, reduced suicidality, improved body image, better social connections, enhanced quality of life, and a renewed sense of hope. Quantitative analyses comparing those who could access blockers (n = 115) to those who wanted but could not access them (n = 214) reinforced many findings, with statistically significant associations across multiple domains of wellbeing and positive youth development. Recommendations include the removal of any further restrictions on access to puberty blockers; a need for improved healthcare access for young people; and further research on intersectional experiences and barriers to access.

Dr John Fenaughty (he/him) is a queer cis pākehā (settler) lecturer at Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland. John's research and activism focus on takatāpui and rainbow+ young people's health and wellbeing, with attention to equity and inclusion, especially in educational and health contexts. He teaches in the Graduate School of Social Practice in the Faculty of Arts and Education.

Stephen Davidson - Voice Coach

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Stephen Davidson

TRANS+ COMMUNITY VOICE WORKSHOPS
A practical introduction to transmasculine & transfeminine voice
for members of the Trans+ community
(including NB/GNC folks)


Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Transmasculine workshop: 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM PDT
Transfeminine workshop: 6:15 PM - 7:15 PM PDT
UVic Hickman 110 & Online 

 

Transmasculine Workshop: We'll look at how the voice works, what T changes (and doesn’t), and explore vocal qualities that read as masculine. You'll practice in low-key pairs, never on the spot, with time for questions and tips on how to practice.

Transfeminine Workshop: We'll explore how the voice works, what makes it sound feminine, and try simple exercises to begin shifting vocal habits. You’ll practice in relaxed pairs, never on the spot, with plenty of time for questions and discussion.

Stephen Davidson founded London Trans Choir in 2017 and has been working with trans voices of all kinds ever since. As a trained actor and musician, he brings a dynamic and flexible approach to voice work for all voice types. Through his work with The Tavistock and Portman Gender Clinic, Trans Choir, Love Tank, and with actor/singers from beginner to West End levels, he has worked with every voice type under the sun. A leading authority on transmasculine voice, he released his third book, The Transmasculine Voice: A Guide To Vocal Euphoria in 2024.

Luca Tainio - Visiting Doctoral Researcher

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Luca Tainio

I'm So Proud, I Grew it Myself:
Challenging Cisnormative Ideals of the Penis
Through Trans Male Embodiment


Thursday, April 10, 2025
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM PDT
UVic Cornett A317 & Online 

In my presentation, through a discussion of three YouTube vlogs by trans men, I will suggest that the seemingly simple division between men who have a penis (cis) and men who do not (trans) not only fails to reflect embodied realities of many trans men but is to a great extent discursively created and maintained.

Instead of defining trans men's bodies through a lack of "genital status reserved for cisgender men alone" (Keegan 2016), I consider the non-surgically altered trans penis as a form of body-reflexive practice of masculinity and thus a significant part of building one's trans male self.

My aim here is to critically bother the common cultural idea(l)s of what is, or what counts as, a penis, and in a wider sense to create a counternarrative to the cisnormative ways in which we see and understand male embodiment.

Luca Tainio is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and an Adjunct Lecturer at Karlstad University, Sweden. His research focuses on questions of transmasculinity, embodiment and knowledge-production. Currently Luca is also a part of two research projects; "Affective Activism: Sites of Queer and Trans World-Making" and "Trans*Creative: Health, Violence and Environment in Trans Cultural Production."