Researching the history and international impact of the medical diagnosis of transsexuality, from 1900 to the present day

The project (and future outputs) that this meeting will discuss will have impact with respect to social and cultural issues. Two key aims of the project are to 1) change the way that transsexual people are widely understood in the Western world and 2)to halt the disappearance of ‘at risk’ international historical and traditional gender variant cultures. Beneficiaries include UK and international transgender communities and UK and international medical professionals.

This three-day meeting to be held in June 2011 was organised by myself and is supported by a Wellcome Trust Small Grant administered through UAL.

This meeting represents the first stage of a large international project to be carried out by myself and Prof Stephen Whittle together with the collaborators listed above. The other speakers at the meeting have been invited with a view to forming a Steering Committee for the larger project. We also will invite one medical historian to become a collaborator on the project. I will give a paper at the meeting on collaborative/participatory photography and recording oral histories.

This international project will examine how transgender personal and legal issues intersect and the respective roles of social visibility and legibility in the changing international conceptions of transsexual identities.

Prof Whittle and myself have been in discussion with the Wellcome Trust over the past 8 months about this project and the Trust are very keen to support us with making applications to them in order to be able to carry out the project.

Following on from the June meeting I will be arranging to meet with two members from the Wellcome Trust to discuss ways in which our project might fit with and be carried out through their new Investigator awards. Prof Whittle and myself will then work on and submit this application.

In the meantime we are developing our international contacts in the Far East, Australasia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe in preparation for carrying out extensive fieldwork in these regions.

While there will be no published or exhibited outcomes from the June 2011 meeting, there will however be a number of outcomes from the larger project including a major exhibition, book publication, journal articles, an online data base, and a conference.

Chair
Linda Bellos OBE, Director, EDHR Solutions, Board Member of the Institute of Equality and Diversity Practitioners

Core Research Team
Prof. Stephen Whittle OBE, Professor of Equalities Law, Manchester Metropolitan University

Dr Jamison Green, Primary Care Protocols Manager, Centre of Excellence for Transgender Health, Dept. of Family and Community Medicine, University of California

Dr Lewis Turner, Vice-President, Press for Change

Dr Richard Fay, Lecturer in Education (TESOL and Intercultural Communication), University of Manchester

Invited Speakers
Dr Tracey Yeadon-Lee, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield

Ryan Combs, (PhD cand.), Research Associate, School of Medicine, University of Manchester

Dr Susan Speer, Senior Lecturer, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester (video conferencing from USA)

Dr Kate Fisher, Centre for Medical History, University of Exeter

Prof Jo Melling, Centre for Medical History, University of Exeter

Dr Nicole Baur, Centre for Medical History, University of Exeter