About us

The Transgender Archives is a part of the University of Victoria Libraries.

We believe that the history of pioneering Trans+ and other gender-diverse activists and the work they have done on behalf of their communities must be preserved. The Transgender Archives is actively acquiring documents, rare publications, and memorabilia of persons and organizations that have worked for the betterment of Trans+ people.

Since 2007, we have been actively acquiring documents, rare publications, and memorabilia of persons and organizations associated with activism by and for Trans+ people. We officially launched in late Fall 2011 at a joint gathering of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the Southern Comfort Conference, and the U.S. Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, all meeting at the Emory Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

We began with the generous donation of the Rikki Swin Institute collection. The Transgender Archives have been enhanced by other significant donations including the personal papers of Reed Erickson, the entire University of Ulster Trans-Gender Archive collection, and the records of Zenith Foundation of Vancouver Canada, among many others.

The Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria Libraries is open to the public, faculty, students, and scholars free of charge.

Aaron Devor, Founder & Subject Matter Expert

Dr. Aaron Devor, PhD, FSSSS, FSTLHE, is an internationally recognized leader in Transgender Studies who has been studying and teaching about transgender topics since the early 1980s. He established and holds the world’s first Chair in Transgender Studies; initiated and hosts the international, interdisciplinary Moving Trans History Forward conferences; and is the founder and subject matter expert for the world’s largest Transgender Archives. He has published widely on transgender topics, including as an author of four books and editor of one.

His 1989 book, Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality, was the first book to describe what would now be considered nonbinary identities. His 1997, 720-page classic, FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society, was the second-ever book about trans men and the first based on non-clinical field research. Other influential works includes a widely-cited model of transgender identity development (2004) and the Lambda-Literary-Award-nominee The Transgender Archives: Foundations for the Future (2014) about the Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria. He has also been an author of versions of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s (WPATH) Standards of Care since 1999 (versions 6, 7, & 8).

Devor’s opinions are frequently sought by the media. He has delivered more than 40 keynote and plenary addresses to audiences around the world, and he has received numerous awards for his research and advocacy work. He is a 3M national-award-winning teacher, a Fellow of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, and a member of the International Academy of Sex Research. Dr. Devor is a former Dean of Graduate Studies, and a professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, Canada.

Lara Wilson

Lara Wilson is director of special collections and university archivist at the University of Victoria. Lara holds a master of arts degree (art history and visual studies) from UVic and a master of archival studies from the University of British Columbia. She is chairperson of the Canadian Council of Archives.

Michael Radmacher

Michael is the Transgender Archives Metadata Librarian & Outreach Librarian at UVic Libraries.

He originates from Treaty 4 territory in Saskatchewan and relocated to UVic in 2009 to complete his MA in Political Science. In 2010 he completed his award-winning thesis and joined UVic Libraries where he began volunteering for the Transgender Archives starting in 2014. In 2016, Michael completed his Masters of Library and Information Science degree. Michael worked with the Chair in Transgender Studies from its launch in 2016 to 2025.

Email: mikerad@uvic.ca