Talks and Presentations

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Trans pregnancy talk in Lausanne: 17 April

I am honoured to be speaking at the University of Lausanne next week, at an event hosted by the Center for Gender Studies. If you happen to be reading this in Switzerland, it would be lovely to see you there!

I’ll be providing a broad overview of findings from across the Trans Pregnancy Project. My aim is to analyse the moral panic over trans inclusion in perinatal care in the context of the vast amount of evidence in favour of gender-affirming approaches. This is also part of a series of talks I am doing this year reflecting back on the project more broadly as we publish the last of our findings.

More information on the event can be found on the University of Lausanne website.

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Keynote at Punk Scholars conference

On Thursday 12 December I will be speaking at the University of Stirling for the Punk Scholars Network UK annual conference!

In-person bookings appear to be closed, but you can still register for free to attend online.

Poster for the Punk Scholars Network 11th Annual Conference and Postgraduate Symposium, featuring black text, an image of cargo crates against a yellow background, and logos for PSN Global Punk, the University of Stirling, and the Punk Scholars Network. Text reads as follows. Punk: status, genre and creativity. 12th and 13th December 2024, University of Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom (with a hybrid option throughout). www.punkscholarsnetwork.com.

In my talk, I am planning to draw on the history of trans movements, trans studies, and trans punk to argue that we can and should be using creative DIY skills to change the world. Trans experiences show the power of genre-crossing, which can be applied to knowledge exchange within and beyond both universities and punk scenes. From gigs to zines to academic talks and self-archiving, trans punk pedagogy can help us work through our complicity, and build solidarity across difference.
 

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Event: Participatory recovery and reconstruction: Lessons from Ukraine

Alongside colleagues from the Community Development Journal, I am organising this hybrid event which is taking place in Glasgow’s Advanced Research Centre from 6pm-8pm on Monday 26th February.

For a free ticket to attend either in-person or online, please book via Eventbrite.

As the conflict in Ukraine enters its third year, how are community development workers building participatory approaches to recovery and reconstruction?

This event will see Nataliya Drozd (Dobrochyn Centre) and Oleksandr Pidhorniy (Chernihiv Centre for Human Rights) in conversation with peacebuilding expert Professor Sinéad Gormally (School of Education, University of Glasgow).

We will hear first-hand about democratic activism, local self-governance, and integration of internally displaced peoples from civil society experts based on the ground in Ukraine. Attendees will also have space to reflect on how we can apply insights from their knowledge and experience within our own communities in Scotland.

This will be a hybrid event – when you book your (free) ticket, please state whether you will be joining online. We will circulate a link to join the event on the afternoon of 26th February.

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Talk at the University of Strathclyde: Wed 17 Jan

I will be speaking about my research at an event hosted by the Strathclyde University Feminist Research Network at 3pm on Wednesday.

The talk is titled “Reproductive Justice for Trans People”. It will focus on findings from the Trans Pregnancy and Improving Trans Experiences of Maternity Services projects, but will also touch on wider questions of social reproduction for trans people of all ages and genders.

The event is free to attend, and you can register to attend here.


There are also a lot of other great talks on feminist topics hosted by the Feminist Research Network as part of their seminar series, so definitely check them out!

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Trans liberation at Greenbelt Festival

I’m delighted (and slightly baffled) to announce I will be speaking at Greenbelt Festival at the end of August. I’ll be talking trans liberation and feminist futures, thinking through how solidarity and collaboration can help us build a better future for all.

You can get your tickets here.

If you’ve ever wanted to see me on the same lineup as Ezra Furman, Laura Mvula, Grace Petrie, Sorority Grrrls, Brian Eno, and *checks notes* Tim Farron, this is likely your one (1) chance.

Poster for Greenbelt Festival, which takes place 24-27 August in Kettering, UK
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No talks forthcoming

For the first time in four years (or more!) I don’t have any forthcoming talks booked at the moment.

Honestly, it’s a bit of a relief. I’ve been deeply honoured and humbled by the interest in my work in recent years, but have also frequently found myself exhausted and overwhelmed by it. It takes time to plan a talk, and it takes a great deal of emotional energy to speak about topics such as institutional sexism or transphobia. Especially in the years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, I felt like I was almost constantly travelling to speak.

In theory, it was exactly the kind of attention I wanted for my research. In practice, I’ve had to spend a lot of time teaching myself to say “no”. I came to understand why various academics I asked to speak at events often didn’t even answer their emails. I suspect they simply didn’t have the ability to read them all, let alone answer. Meanwhile, there are plenty of researchers – especially “early career” academics – who don’t receive anything like the attention they deserve for their work.

I think academics especially have a strange, unhealthy approach to talks and conference presentations. After I began working in a full-time, salaried role for the first time in 2017 (who needs job security or sick pay in their 20s?!?) speaking about my research became sort of part of my job, but was rarely accounted for in any kind of formal work load. Talks generally don’t “count” like academic publications. At the same time, a lot of us find them an immensely useful way to share and learn about cutting-edge studies, and they can be so important for reaching beyond the academy and sharing findings with general audiences.

As a result, you will definitely see me announcing more talks soon. But I am trying to get better at working within my capacity. Part of this involves recommending other speakers who I know will benefit from the opportunity – that is, when I have time to reply to my external emails.

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Video: Reproductive Justice for Trans People

Earlier this year I did a talk for the University of Cambridge Reproductive Justice Research Network alongside my excellent colleague Francis Ray White.

We talked about research findings from the Trans Pregnancy and Improving Trans Experiences of Maternity Services projects, plus reflected on the wider context of reproductive justice for trans people, including media coverage, medical racism, abortion rights, and attacks on young trans people’s bodily autonomy.

You can watch a video of the talk here:

(as a quick aside, I’d like to thank my good friend Harry Tunnicliffe for last use minute of his office so I could do this talk while away from home!)

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Upcoming talks: April-May 2022

I am speaking at a series of exciting events over the next few weeks! All are free to attend, you will just need to register in advance if you’d like to come.

Tuesday 26th April – Manchester
Trans Healthcare: Past, Present and What Might Have Been

In-person roundtable discussion, with Ellis J Johnson, Stephen Whittle, Krishna Istha, and Laura Salisbury.

6pm-8pm BST, International Anthony Burgess Foundation
3 Cambridge Street, Manchester, M1 5BY

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Wednesday 27th April – Online
Queer and Trans Mobilisations – Possibilities and Challenges

I am incredibly honoured to be giving a keynote talk for this two-day event hosted by the Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad, and the Centre for Writing and Pedagogy, Krea University. I will be speaking about “Building Queer and Trans Communities in the UK” towards the end of the first day, and am enormously excited to be learning from colleagues in India during the event.

10am-6pm IST, 27-28 April
Register online to attend

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Thursday 5 May – Online
UK Workshop in Trans Philosophy

I will be delivering a keynote on the first day of this groundbreaking event hosted by the University of Glasgow. My talk is provisionally titled “Let’s (not!) fight a TERF war: Trans feminism in a time of moral panic”.

9:30am-4:30pm BST, 5-6 May
Register online to attend

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Wednesday 11 May – Online
Reproductive Justice Research Network seminar (link to come)

I will be joining colleagues from the Trans Pregnancy project to discuss findings from our international study of trans and non-binary people’s experience of conception, pregnancy, and childbirth. Our talk is provisionally titled “Reproductive Justice for Trans People”.

Full details TBA – watch this space!

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Trans inequalities in English perinatal care

About a month ago I participated in the TPATH conference. This groundbreaking online event centred trans healthcare practice, research, and activism by and for trans people.

I was very impressed with the measures taken by TPATH organisers to ensure the conference was accessible to as many people as possible from around the world. They organised live translation to and from English, French, and Spanish, provided live captioning, encouraged presenters to speak slowly and clearly to enable lipreading, and ensured that generous scholarships were available for those who would not otherwise afford to attend. Most of the event was recorded, and videos are gradually being uploaded to the TPATH Youtube channel.

At the conference I joined Tash Oakes-Monger from NHS England to present initial findings from the ITEMS project (Improving Trans Experiences of Maternity Services). The ITEMS team, led by Michael Petch from the LGBT Foundation, ran a survey in early 2021 to explore the experiences of trans people (including non-binary people) who give birth in England. I supported the design and dissemination of the survey through my former role with the Trans Learning Partnership.

Bar chart indicating that increasing numbers of trans and non-binary people are giving birth in England every year.
Bar chart indicating growth in number of trans people giving birth in England each year.


There is some really exciting information emerging from the ITEMS data. For example, it appears that more trans people are giving birth than ever before (see above). However, it was also apparent that trans people face substantial inequalities.

Many of the questions in the ITEMS survey used comparable wording to the CQC Maternity Survey – from this we can see that trans people appear more likely to have negative experiences in NHS maternity services than cis women across the board. Even more disturbing is that 30% of trans respondents gave birth without the support of an NHS or private midwife (rising to 46% among trans people of colour). This indicates a lack of trust in midwifery services among prospective trans birth parents, with potentially lethal consequences for both parent and baby.

To learn more, you can watch our presentation on the TPATH Youtube channel.

A formal report of ITEMS findings should be published in the coming months.

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Womxn in Music: Friday 5 March

Promotional image for the Womxn in Music event hosted by the Boileroom. It features Lesley-Anne O'Brian playing guitar, Ruth Pearce singing and pointing, and Nuha Ruby Ra looking moody and intense.

I am speaking on a panel on Womxn in Music this coming Friday! The event is being streamed by Guildford venue The Boileroom as part of a super cool series in the runup to International Women’s Day. I expect to be speaking a bit about DIY culture, my research on queer and trans politics within punk scenes, and experiences of playing in bands and running events.

I’ll be in conversation with Nuha Ruby Ra, who will also be performing a live set, plus Lesley-Anne O’Brien of Lockjaw Records and Midwich Cuckoos.

You can book tickets for free here (or for a donation to the venue – which definitely helps in Covid times!)