Transgender leaders gather at UVic

Moving Trans History Forward: Building Communities – Sharing Connections

An international conference, led by the new UVic Chair in Transgender Studies Aaron Devor, will bring together some of the world’s top researchers, opinion leaders, transgender community activists and students this month to explore the history of transgender activism and crucial issues which impact the lives of trans and gender nonconforming people.

From March 17 to 20, more than 150 community activists, academics, educators, artists and allies from the US, Canada, Mexico, Sweden, Japan and Germany are attending Moving Trans History Forward: Building Communities – Sharing Connections at UVic to discuss the lives, medicalization and activism of trans and gender nonconforming people in the past and today—locally, nationally and around the world.

“My hope is that the conference will stimulate greater research into trans issues,” says Devor, “and that the increased knowledge will benefit the lives of trans people in the community and bring about more action.”

The symposium, which will span four days, includes keynote speakers, panel presentations, workshops and a screening of the romantic comedy Two 4 One, as well as art exhibitions. The symposium will open with an address by UVic Chancellor Shelagh Rogers. Highlights include:
•   Keynote address by Jamison Green, president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, about the triumphs and challenges for transgender people around the world, on March 18;
•   Screening of Two 4 One, a bittersweet comedic drama first launched on iTunes Canada last summer, about a trans man and an unanticipated predicament, by award-winning filmmaker and UVic associate professor Maureen Bradley, on March 18;
•   Virtual keynote address by US innovator Martine Rothblatt, co-chief executive officer of United Therapeutics Corporation, in a talk called “From Transgender to Transhuman to Virtually Human” based on her books Transgender to Transhuman and Virtually Human: The Promise ‒ and the Peril ‒ of Digital Immortality, on March 19;
•   Presentation by Maria Sundin, a Swedish sexologist and social worker, entitled “A Different Story ‒ How Sweden became a Pioneer in Trans Politics and Health in the 1960s,” on March 19; and
•   A “Founders Panel” discussion by veteran trans activists, on March 20.Â

UVic is home to the Transgender Archives, which represents 17 countries on five continents, more than a century of research and over 50 years of activism. In January 2016, the university also established the world’s only Chair in Transgender Studies.

Visit www.uvic.ca/mthf2016 for more information on the conference or to register. (Please note: registration closes March 13 at midnight PT.)

Follow on Twitter: @transarchives #MTHF16
On Facebook: /UVicTransArchives

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