About us

Rachel Hope Cleves

A historian and professor at the University of Victoria, Rachel Hope Cleves is the author of three books, Unspeakable: A Life Beyond Sexual Morality (2020), Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America (2014), and The Reign of Terror in America: Visions of Violence from Anti-Jacobinism to Antislavery (2009). Published in 2018, her article, "Six Ways of Looking at a Trans Man: The Life of Frank Shimer, 1826-1901” can be found in The Journal of the History of Sexuality. In March of 2023, Cleves published an op-ed in The Washington Post entitled, "History Exposes the Real Reason Republicans Are Trying to Ban Drag Shows." Her research has also been featured in The Boston Globe, salon.com and brainpickings.org. Cleves' current project is titled, A Historian's Guide to Food and Sex. 

matthew heinz

matthew heinz (he/they) is a trans interdisciplinary scholar with a doctorate in communication. He is a Professor at Royal Roads University on the traditional Lands of the Lekwungen-speaking people. His work focuses on the intersections of language, gender identity, sexual orientation and culture in communication processes. To find out more about matthew’s work, see his profiles on LinkedIn or Research Gate.

Annalee Lepp

Annalee Lepp joined UVic Gender Studies in 1993. Recipient of the 2012-13 Harry Hickman Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching

I was trained as an historian and my historical research has focused on Canadian gender, family, and legal history and most specifically the history of marital breakdown and domestic violence in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Canada.
My other main area of research concentrates on trafficking in persons, transnational labour migration, and irregular border movements in the global and especially the Canadian context.

I was a co-founder in 1996 and am the current director of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) Canada, a member organization of GAATW whose international secretariat is located in Bangkok. Work in this area has included human trafficking crisis intervention, advocacy, and acting as the principal investigator for a number of funded collaborative research projects on human trafficking and irregular cross-border movements from a human rights perspective.

Hope Warren

Hope is an artist and aspiring full stack web developer with a passion for Trans history and community development.

Margot Wilson

Margot Wilson is a cultural anthropologist interested in culture change, international development and planned change. Her early research has focused primarily on Bangladesh but she has spent a considerable amount of time in India.

Margot's research has focused on women's work in homestead gardens, stigmatization of leprosy patients and abandonment of women and children in Bangladesh. She is interested in women's narratives and the ways in which women represent their lived experiences, especially through letters. Most recently, her interests in gender and narrative have come together in a project focused on life histories of transgender elders. Margot is the owner and editor at TransGender Publishing.

Yahlnaaw

Yahlnaaw (she/her), EQHR Indigenous Rights and Anti-Racism Officer: I work to accelerate transformation of the university’s systems, policies, and cultures towards practices of inclusion, respect, anti-oppression, and decolonization through education and direct-action. In collaboration with other involved persons and offices, I develop and facilitate delivery of training and programs that increase understanding of, commitment to, and action on the university’s human rights, equity, anti-oppression, and decolonization goals.

As a Skidegate Haida, Queer, Transgender woman, I find it central to ensure intersectional epistemologies (ways of knowing), ontologies (ways of being), and axiology (values) are held as central in my work.

Rachel Hope Cleves

A historian and professor at the University of Victoria, Rachel Hope Cleves is the author of three books, Unspeakable: A Life Beyond Sexual Morality (2020), Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America (2014), and The Reign of Terror in America: Visions of Violence from Anti-Jacobinism to Antislavery (2009). Published in 2018, her article, "Six Ways of Looking at a Trans Man: The Life of Frank Shimer, 1826-1901” can be found in The Journal of the History of Sexuality. In March of 2023, Cleves published an op-ed in The Washington Post entitled, "History Exposes the Real Reason Republicans Are Trying to Ban Drag Shows." Her research has also been featured in The Boston Globe, salon.com and brainpickings.org. Cleves' current project is titled, A Historian's Guide to Food and Sex.

matthew heinz

matthew heinz (he/they) is a trans interdisciplinary scholar with a doctorate in communication. He is a Professor at Royal Roads University on the traditional Lands of the Lekwungen-speaking people. His work focuses on the intersections of language, gender identity, sexual orientation and culture in communication processes. To find out more about matthew’s work, see his profiles on LinkedIn or Research Gate.

Annalee Lepp

Annalee Lepp joined UVic Gender Studies in 1993. Recipient of the 2012-13 Harry Hickman Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching

I was trained as an historian and my historical research has focused on Canadian gender, family, and legal history and most specifically the history of marital breakdown and domestic violence in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Canada.
My other main area of research concentrates on trafficking in persons, transnational labour migration, and irregular border movements in the global and especially the Canadian context.

I was a co-founder in 1996 and am the current director of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) Canada, a member organization of GAATW whose international secretariat is located in Bangkok. Work in this area has included human trafficking crisis intervention, advocacy, and acting as the principal investigator for a number of funded collaborative research projects on human trafficking and irregular cross-border movements from a human rights perspective.

Lara Wilson

As University Archivist and Director of Special Collections, I can direct you to information about our rare books and periodicals, manuscripts, archival records (historical documents, photographs, films, and other audio visual recordings) and special collections (primary source materials collected on specific subject).

Special Collections and University Archives acquires a diverse range of materials, in support of teaching and research:

Private archives of individuals and organizations in the subject areas of anarchism, architecture, arts and culture (visual arts, performing arts), Asian Canadian history, environmental studies, environmentalism, modernist literature, military history, South Vancouver Island history and political affairs, transgender studies, and women's studies; University of Victoria, Victoria College and Provincial Normal School historical records; archives of individuals and organizations from the University community.

Our rare print holdings include internationally recognized holdings in Modernist British, American and Anglo-Irish literature. Other subject areas collected include Canadian military history; early 20th century literary magazines; Northwest exploration, ethnology, art and anthropology; and regional and Southern Vancouver Island authors and literary culture. Special Collections also houses the Seghers Collection, which consists of approximately 4,000 books on Catholic theology and church history, canon law, liturgy and ritual, canonization and monasticism.

Lara Wilson

As University Archivist and Director of Special Collections, I can direct you to information about our rare books and periodicals, manuscripts, archival records (historical documents, photographs, films, and other audio visual recordings) and special collections (primary source materials collected on specific subject).

Special Collections and University Archives acquires a diverse range of materials, in support of teaching and research:

Private archives of individuals and organizations in the subject areas of anarchism, architecture, arts and culture (visual arts, performing arts), Asian Canadian history, environmental studies, environmentalism, modernist literature, military history, South Vancouver Island history and political affairs, transgender studies, and women's studies; University of Victoria, Victoria College and Provincial Normal School historical records; archives of individuals and organizations from the University community.

Our rare print holdings include internationally recognized holdings in Modernist British, American and Anglo-Irish literature. Other subject areas collected include Canadian military history; early 20th century literary magazines; Northwest exploration, ethnology, art and anthropology; and regional and Southern Vancouver Island authors and literary culture. Special Collections also houses the Seghers Collection, which consists of approximately 4,000 books on Catholic theology and church history, canon law, liturgy and ritual, canonization and monasticism.

ChrŸs Tei

ChrŸs Tei is the Executive Director at Rainbow Health Co-operative, BC’s largest trans owned organization, and manages XQQ Cross Queer Quarterly. She is a social entrepreneur building wellness in the GNC and trans community.

Wren Hawke

Wren Hawke Smith (they/them) is a Trans neurodivergent queer person within the local community. Wren graduated from the University of Victoria with a BA in English in 2018, where they wrote many papers on classical literature from a queer lens. After a short break, Wren returned to UVic and had the privilege of joining the Chair in Transgender Studies as a work study student for two years. Connecting to and working with the Trans community was an immense joy for Wren, who had only recently realized their nonbinary-ness. While working with the Chair and spending time in the Transgender Archives, Wren developed an interest in digital literacy and Open Access Knowledge, considering what it means to create truly accessible spaces for folks within varying intersections of privilege and education levels to access history and knowledge such as that magical history within the Transgender Archives.

Today, Wren has stepped away from academic spaces to focus on their mental health, and now has the pleasure of working with the Moving Trans History Forward committee as a community member. In their spare time, you can find Wren crying over video games, creating stories with their friends in TTRPG's, and working on one of their dozens of crafting hobbies.

Kaito Takeda

Based in Victoria, B.C., Kaito Takeda is an East Asian, queer, neurodivergent, trans person that hopes to help bring visual representation and a unique perspective to the University of Victoria's Transgender Studies Arts and Cultural Events Committee. Kaito is a multi-instrumentalist who brings his passion for music to many stages. Crossing musical genres, Kaito has performed with various ensembles including the Victoria Symphony as well as arranging and performing with his band, Auburn Blind, and string quartet, Breakwater Quartet. He has also found a passion in copyist work, and has enthusiastically embraced the challenges that come with the precision necessary to work as a session musician for film scores and albums. Kaito is also pursuing a Masters degree in Clinical Counseling to further support the LGBTQIA+ community.

Hope Warren

Hope is an artist, and aspiring full stack web developer with a passion for Trans history and community development.

Jove Nazatul

Jove Nazatul (they/them) is a multifaceted producer, filmmaker, performer, artist, skilled trades worker and advocate. More famously known as the drag artist Noah Lott, Jove is of Malay, Chinese and Indian descent. Being a self-described mixed bag of cultural heritage has fuelled their deep, innate desire for community in a world where they don’t quite fit in any boxes. This inspired Jove to start producing ColourVision: a drag show in full colour as a way to provide a platform for other queer, trans performers of colour. In their full-time job, Jove advocates for underrepresented groups in the skilled trades industry in the hopes of creating a safer working environment for everyone. Their work has led them to being named a CHANGEMAKER by Pride at Work Canada in 2024.