As Canadian universities seek to attract more international students, there is a need to recogniz... more As Canadian universities seek to attract more international students, there is a need to recognize and respond to the diversity within this group and to question the binary categories of domestic students and international stu-dents. Relying primarily on 116 qualitative interviews with international undergraduates at the University of British Columbia, we utilize American students as a case study from which to explore the complex and blurred boundaries between these two categories. Americans resemble domestic stu-dents in some respects and international students in others, yet they are often less prepared to meet adaptational challenges because they have low expecta-tions of cultural and institutional differences. We compare the experiences of Americans and international students from other countries, as well as other groups of students who fall between the cracks of the domestic and inter-national student classifications. We argue that, by targeting services on the basis of these b...
Over the last 15 years, Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies and other publications have featur... more Over the last 15 years, Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies and other publications have featured a range of writing and scholarship about queer issues, identity, and representations related to the Whedonverses, but there has not yet been a publication dedicated solely to queer Whedon studies. This special issue, therefore, seemed timely, if not overdue.
Being safe, being me es el informe de resultados de la “Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey”, una ... more Being safe, being me es el informe de resultados de la “Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey”, una encuesta canadiense realizada online, llevada a cabo por personal investigador de varias universidades del pais y de organizaciones dedicadas a la investigacion social y de la salud. La encuesta, suministrada a 923 jovenes trans de todo el pais, con edades comprendidas entre los 14 y 25 anos, incluye preguntas sobre una amplia gama de experiencias de vida y factores sociales que influyen en la salud de estos/as jovenes. Asi, el informe de resultados se convierte en una primera radiografia de la realidad social de los y las jovenes trans en Canada, a la par que da pistas de lo que pueden ser las vivencias de este grupo social en otros paises occidentales como Espana.
This paper draws on interviews with 69 educators in four school districts in Canada who worked wi... more This paper draws on interviews with 69 educators in four school districts in Canada who worked with trans students as they transitioned at their school to analyze how students’ involvement in decision-making processes were featured in participants’ stories. I focus specifically on the “student in charge” narrative that appeared prominently in my interviews and frames the young person as the expert on their own life and thus the person best positioned to set the pace and shape what the transition looks like, with adults following their lead. While this narrative seems to offer a hopeful intervention into the systems of cisnormativity that structure schools, I argue that a closer look at how this narrative functions in the talk of educators reveals that it is often undermined by dominant discourses of youth, safety, and choice that limit its transformative potential and often bolster cisnormative assumptions. As a result, opportunities for advocating for trans students are missed, as ...
As Canadian universities seek to attract more international students, there is a need to recogniz... more As Canadian universities seek to attract more international students, there is a need to recognize and respond to the diversity within this group and to question the binary categories of domestic students and international students. Relying primarily on 116 qualitative interviews with international undergraduates at the University of British Columbia, we utilize American students as a case study from which to explore the complex and blurred boundaries between these two categories. Americans resemble domestic students in some respects and international students in others, yet they are often less prepared to meet adaptational challenges because they have low expectations of cultural and institutional differences. We compare the experiences of Americans and international students from other countries, as well as other groups of students who fall between the cracks of the domestic and international student classifications. We argue that, by targeting services on the basis of these broad...
Over the last 15 years, Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies and other publications have featur... more Over the last 15 years, Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies and other publications have featured a range of writing and scholarship about queer issues, identity, and representations related to the Whedonverses, but there has not yet been a publication dedicated solely to queer Whedon studies. This special issue, therefore, seemed timely, if not overdue.
As a research team focused on vulnerable youth, we increasingly need to find ways to acknowledge ... more As a research team focused on vulnerable youth, we increasingly need to find ways to acknowledge non-binary genders in health research. Youth have become more vocal about expanding notions of gender beyond traditional categories of boy/man and girl/woman. Integrating non-binary identities into established research processes is a complex undertaking in a culture that often assumes gender is a binary variable. In this article, we present the challenges at every stage of the research process and questions we have asked ourselves to consider non-binary genders in our work. As researchers, how do we interrogate the assumptions that have made non-binary lives invisible? What challenges arise when attempting to transform research practices to incorporate non-binary genders? Why is it crucial that researchers consider these questions at each step of the research process? We draw on our own research experiences to highlight points of tensions and possibilities for change. Improving access to inclusive health-care for non-binary people, and non-binary youth in particular, is part of creating a more equitable healthcare system. We argue that increased and improved access to inclusive health-care can be supported by research that acknowledges and includes people of all genders. K E Y W O R D S gender, gender-and sex-based analysis, gender identity, health research, non-binary gender, population health, research methodology, transgender, youth In March 2015, our research team went to a Vancouver high school to administer an annual questionnaire in a longitudinal study on student wellness. We had arranged to visit all of the classrooms–sur-veying nearly 1400 students—over 2 weeks. On Friday morning, a student asked why there were only two options describing sex (male and female), rather than a range of options for gender (e.g., girl, boy, genderqueer). We explained that while it was not ideal, we had chosen to limit the options to male and female because in past school-based surveys, providing a write-in option for gender identity in addition to sex has led to measurement error. Some youth do not understand questions about gender identity, or they treat the question as a joke. We encouraged the student, and the entire class, to use the comments section to express their opinion about the question. We said we would investigate other options for the survey next year. Over the next week, a student in every classroom we visited asked us a similar question.
This paper examines the meanings educators produce about their experiences working with trans and... more This paper examines the meanings educators produce about their experiences working with trans and gender-nonconforming students, and the effects of this discursive process. In this paper, I draw on 62 interviews with school staff conducted in British Columbia to examine how educators understand their role in an institutional context (a school) that is shaped by systems of power that legitimise and enforce sexual and gender conformity. By drawing on the dominant narratives available to them, educators recounted their experiences through discursive resources that tend to distance them from the institutional systems of power they were operating within. Four specific discursive resources through which the educators' experiences became intelligible are described: (1) relying on bullying discourses, (2) framing themselves as open-minded individuals, (3) emphasising external institutional obstacles and (4) acknowledging their complicity in systems of power. Through these discursive framings, the role that educators themselves play in shaping the field of legibility and legitimacy in schools is downplayed, thus limiting the potential to resist and displace existing systems of power and generate systemic transformations.
Results from the first Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey. Copy of the report in French and more ... more Results from the first Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey. Copy of the report in French and more on the SARAVYC website.
The phenomenon of heteroflexibility, wherein a heterosexual character engages in same-sex intimac... more The phenomenon of heteroflexibility, wherein a heterosexual character engages in same-sex intimacy, provides a good example of how modern narratives of sexuality can contain promises of subversion yet also shore up heteronormative schemas. To fully understand how the notion of heteroflexibility functions to broaden and/or restrict our understandings of (female) sexuality, we need to examine how these narratives are taken up by the audience. This article explores this tension by analysing how readers reacted to a heteroflexible storyline featured in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books. By examining how this story was interpreted, rejected and/or embraced by readers, I show that readers who disliked the heteroflexible storyline as well as those who enjoyed it draw on liberal discourses that obscure how heteronormativity operates. This in turn limits heteroflexibility’s potential for disrupting dominant heteronormative discourses.
As Canadian universities seek to attract more international students, there is a need to recogniz... more As Canadian universities seek to attract more international students, there is a need to recognize and respond to the diversity within this group and to question the binary categories of domestic students and international stu-dents. Relying primarily on 116 qualitative interviews with international undergraduates at the University of British Columbia, we utilize American students as a case study from which to explore the complex and blurred boundaries between these two categories. Americans resemble domestic stu-dents in some respects and international students in others, yet they are often less prepared to meet adaptational challenges because they have low expecta-tions of cultural and institutional differences. We compare the experiences of Americans and international students from other countries, as well as other groups of students who fall between the cracks of the domestic and inter-national student classifications. We argue that, by targeting services on the basis of these b...
Over the last 15 years, Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies and other publications have featur... more Over the last 15 years, Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies and other publications have featured a range of writing and scholarship about queer issues, identity, and representations related to the Whedonverses, but there has not yet been a publication dedicated solely to queer Whedon studies. This special issue, therefore, seemed timely, if not overdue.
Being safe, being me es el informe de resultados de la “Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey”, una ... more Being safe, being me es el informe de resultados de la “Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey”, una encuesta canadiense realizada online, llevada a cabo por personal investigador de varias universidades del pais y de organizaciones dedicadas a la investigacion social y de la salud. La encuesta, suministrada a 923 jovenes trans de todo el pais, con edades comprendidas entre los 14 y 25 anos, incluye preguntas sobre una amplia gama de experiencias de vida y factores sociales que influyen en la salud de estos/as jovenes. Asi, el informe de resultados se convierte en una primera radiografia de la realidad social de los y las jovenes trans en Canada, a la par que da pistas de lo que pueden ser las vivencias de este grupo social en otros paises occidentales como Espana.
This paper draws on interviews with 69 educators in four school districts in Canada who worked wi... more This paper draws on interviews with 69 educators in four school districts in Canada who worked with trans students as they transitioned at their school to analyze how students’ involvement in decision-making processes were featured in participants’ stories. I focus specifically on the “student in charge” narrative that appeared prominently in my interviews and frames the young person as the expert on their own life and thus the person best positioned to set the pace and shape what the transition looks like, with adults following their lead. While this narrative seems to offer a hopeful intervention into the systems of cisnormativity that structure schools, I argue that a closer look at how this narrative functions in the talk of educators reveals that it is often undermined by dominant discourses of youth, safety, and choice that limit its transformative potential and often bolster cisnormative assumptions. As a result, opportunities for advocating for trans students are missed, as ...
As Canadian universities seek to attract more international students, there is a need to recogniz... more As Canadian universities seek to attract more international students, there is a need to recognize and respond to the diversity within this group and to question the binary categories of domestic students and international students. Relying primarily on 116 qualitative interviews with international undergraduates at the University of British Columbia, we utilize American students as a case study from which to explore the complex and blurred boundaries between these two categories. Americans resemble domestic students in some respects and international students in others, yet they are often less prepared to meet adaptational challenges because they have low expectations of cultural and institutional differences. We compare the experiences of Americans and international students from other countries, as well as other groups of students who fall between the cracks of the domestic and international student classifications. We argue that, by targeting services on the basis of these broad...
Over the last 15 years, Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies and other publications have featur... more Over the last 15 years, Slayage: The Journal of Whedon Studies and other publications have featured a range of writing and scholarship about queer issues, identity, and representations related to the Whedonverses, but there has not yet been a publication dedicated solely to queer Whedon studies. This special issue, therefore, seemed timely, if not overdue.
As a research team focused on vulnerable youth, we increasingly need to find ways to acknowledge ... more As a research team focused on vulnerable youth, we increasingly need to find ways to acknowledge non-binary genders in health research. Youth have become more vocal about expanding notions of gender beyond traditional categories of boy/man and girl/woman. Integrating non-binary identities into established research processes is a complex undertaking in a culture that often assumes gender is a binary variable. In this article, we present the challenges at every stage of the research process and questions we have asked ourselves to consider non-binary genders in our work. As researchers, how do we interrogate the assumptions that have made non-binary lives invisible? What challenges arise when attempting to transform research practices to incorporate non-binary genders? Why is it crucial that researchers consider these questions at each step of the research process? We draw on our own research experiences to highlight points of tensions and possibilities for change. Improving access to inclusive health-care for non-binary people, and non-binary youth in particular, is part of creating a more equitable healthcare system. We argue that increased and improved access to inclusive health-care can be supported by research that acknowledges and includes people of all genders. K E Y W O R D S gender, gender-and sex-based analysis, gender identity, health research, non-binary gender, population health, research methodology, transgender, youth In March 2015, our research team went to a Vancouver high school to administer an annual questionnaire in a longitudinal study on student wellness. We had arranged to visit all of the classrooms–sur-veying nearly 1400 students—over 2 weeks. On Friday morning, a student asked why there were only two options describing sex (male and female), rather than a range of options for gender (e.g., girl, boy, genderqueer). We explained that while it was not ideal, we had chosen to limit the options to male and female because in past school-based surveys, providing a write-in option for gender identity in addition to sex has led to measurement error. Some youth do not understand questions about gender identity, or they treat the question as a joke. We encouraged the student, and the entire class, to use the comments section to express their opinion about the question. We said we would investigate other options for the survey next year. Over the next week, a student in every classroom we visited asked us a similar question.
This paper examines the meanings educators produce about their experiences working with trans and... more This paper examines the meanings educators produce about their experiences working with trans and gender-nonconforming students, and the effects of this discursive process. In this paper, I draw on 62 interviews with school staff conducted in British Columbia to examine how educators understand their role in an institutional context (a school) that is shaped by systems of power that legitimise and enforce sexual and gender conformity. By drawing on the dominant narratives available to them, educators recounted their experiences through discursive resources that tend to distance them from the institutional systems of power they were operating within. Four specific discursive resources through which the educators' experiences became intelligible are described: (1) relying on bullying discourses, (2) framing themselves as open-minded individuals, (3) emphasising external institutional obstacles and (4) acknowledging their complicity in systems of power. Through these discursive framings, the role that educators themselves play in shaping the field of legibility and legitimacy in schools is downplayed, thus limiting the potential to resist and displace existing systems of power and generate systemic transformations.
Results from the first Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey. Copy of the report in French and more ... more Results from the first Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey. Copy of the report in French and more on the SARAVYC website.
The phenomenon of heteroflexibility, wherein a heterosexual character engages in same-sex intimac... more The phenomenon of heteroflexibility, wherein a heterosexual character engages in same-sex intimacy, provides a good example of how modern narratives of sexuality can contain promises of subversion yet also shore up heteronormative schemas. To fully understand how the notion of heteroflexibility functions to broaden and/or restrict our understandings of (female) sexuality, we need to examine how these narratives are taken up by the audience. This article explores this tension by analysing how readers reacted to a heteroflexible storyline featured in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books. By examining how this story was interpreted, rejected and/or embraced by readers, I show that readers who disliked the heteroflexible storyline as well as those who enjoyed it draw on liberal discourses that obscure how heteronormativity operates. This in turn limits heteroflexibility’s potential for disrupting dominant heteronormative discourses.
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