KEYNOTE PLENARY
Hannah Kia
In this talk, I draw on my experience as a researcher and a settler trans woman to consider the possibilities and limitations of community-informed research involving 2S/LGBTQ+ people in catalyzing change across temporal contexts. After socially locating myself and my work, I first discuss my doctoral research on older gay men’s healthcare experiences. In sharing the findings of this study, which highlight ongoing histories of intersectional oppression and resistance that shape older gay men’s contemporary health-care experiences, I consider the potential of harnessing research to render visible and challenge historically rooted injustices. During the second part of my talk, I introduce a study I have recently led on experiences of peer support among transgender (trans) and gender diverse (TGD) people. The emerging findings of this study foreground the exchange of community-based care as a site of transformative change at multiple levels. In reviewing these data, I discuss the emancipatory relevance of leveraging research to co-imagine possibilities of caring and collectivizing. I conclude this presentation with key lessons reflected in my experience as a new researcher, including the need to push against institutional confines that restrict the practice of community-informed research.
