About Me
I am a polycultural, multilingual scholar who maintains a research-active and community-active international portfolio. I am a highly skilled policy consultant, researcher, counsellor, and public speaker. My understanding of international and cross-cultural issues is informed by my experience as a 2011 United Nations (UN) delegate for the Activist Enrichment Programme (AEP) of The René Cassin Foundation, an international human rights non-governmental organisation (NGO). In addition to having been raised in rural and urban areas of Australia and China, I have lived or worked with diverse communities in Poland, the UK, the US, and elsewhere. As winner of the 2011 Higher Education Academy National Psychology Postgraduate Teaching Award given annually to one person in the UK, I am dedicated to teaching excellence.
My PhD Research
As a final year PhD Candidate supervised by Peter Hegarty in the Department of Psychology at the University of Surrey, my research focuses on cisgenderism—ideology regarding people whose assigned gender or 'sex' categories differ from their self-designated genders or from their actual bodies. I use the term ideology here to describe meanings constructed by and reflected in everyday language, gestures, images, other symbolic forms, as well as responses to dilemmas of daily life. Cisgenderism can involve various forms of structural and physical violence. In some societies, people with self-designated genders may designate themselves and/or be labelled by others as kathoey, kinnar, trans, Two-Spirit, or Bissu.
States and societies often disregard people's authority to self-designate their genders. For example, a woman is unable to get documentation listing her self-designated gender or she is denied invitations to women-only social gatherings because she was assigned as 'male' or as a 'man'. Some medical and psychological professionals also disregard this authority through discriminatory gatekeeping policies. People with self-designated genders are often denied medical care that is readily available to other people.
Research methods I have used to study cisgenderism include experiments, survey questionnaires, quantitative content analysis, and qualitative critical discourse analysis.
My first study was a quantitative content analysis of pathologising and misgendering forms of cisgenderism in psychological literature on children. The paper based on this research is the first empirical study on cisgenderism in psychological literature, and has been published in the journal Psychology & Sexuality. Click here to read this Publication.
Goals of my research include: increasing awareness of how cisgenderism can affect psychological and medical research and clinical practice; reducing cisgenderism in medical, psychological, legal and social arenas; contributing to evidence-based psychological understanding of cisgenderism in everyday life; and developing effective interventions to reduce cisgenderism.
My Interests
In addition to having worked as a salaried Editorial Assistant for peer reviewed journal Developmental Psychology, I also served as Founding Director for Lifelines Rhode Island/Cuerdas de Salvamento, a regional non-profit agency that provided advocacy, health referrals, education, support, and crisis services to people whose assigned gender and assumed bodies differed from their actual genders and bodies. Some of my previous professional roles have included bilingual English/Spanish Psychiatric Rehabilitation Caseworker, appointed Human Rights Officer for a supported housing team, and Youth Counsellor. I have also presented on equalities issues to health and human service organisations, law enforcement, and clergy from multiple religions. In addition, I have served on several legislative and health policy task forces.
I am interested in multiple medical and psychological topics across diverse sub-fields, and my research is informed by a critical interdisciplinary approach.
Click here to view my Publications. Click here for more About Me.
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