Moving academia beyond the gender binary: Improving academia for trans and gender diverse people and the positive benefits to all

Thursday 4 July: Conference day two, 11:30am – 12:00pm parallel session

Venue

Room 10 – 303-B07 Sem

Presenter

Dr JJ. Eldridge
University of Auckland, New Zealand
j.eldridge@auckland.ac.nz

Background

Transgender and gender diverse (T&GD) people over the past few years have had an increasing profile in the public consciousness. In tertiary education, it has become apparent that to give all students an equal chance to succeed in their studies, education providers must make changes to include T&GD students. The same inclusion of T&GD staff will also allow them to work effectively within the University. Over the past several years the University of Auckland has undertaken many initiatives in collaborations with a student group “Trans on Campus” to make academia more inclusive of T&GD staff and students. The initiatives undertaken include recognizing T&GD people’s identities as well providing procedures and guidelines to ensure their safety. I will present the most important steps that can be taken to make the academic environment welcoming for T&GD students and staff as well as the qualitative evidence that these steps have been successful.

My research focuses on the changing T&GD student requests and communications with the University, the popularity of the initiatives that have been instigated, current literature discussing T&GD people in academia and finally my own autoethnographical reflections as a trans academic. Especially, my work stems from my experience of working with T&GD students at the University of Auckland and how we have affected positive change over the last 7 years.

Presentation topic

Students – Wellbeing and Success