Upcoming Events

Join us for a Health Hub Lecture with Júlia C. Pontes, Clinical Psychologist and PhD Candidate in the Public Health at the University of São Paulo, on family and community dynamics around caring for transgender and gender-diverse youth. 

Care for transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) children and adolescents sits at the centre of growing political and epistemological disputes, in contexts marked by the erosion of rights and systematic attacks on research-based knowledge. This workshop engages with this topic, presenting findings from a qualitative exploratory study conducted at a specialised gender health centre in southeastern Brazil (2023–2024), based on 28 in-depth interviews with family members of TGD youth (aged 5–17) and healthcare providers, and participant observation. In the first part, we examine the social elements that facilitate or hinder affirmative family trajectories, with emphasis on the social mechanisms and community dynamics that push families towards corrective practices, and the elements that can favour shifts towards affirmative parenting. In the second part, we discuss how stigma impacts care decisions within a tension between affirmation/support of TGD identity and invisibility/anonymity as a strategy in the face of pervasive violence. Implications point to the centrality of peer support building and alliances between health services and family organisations in moving from individualized to community "care." 

Join us In-Person or Online: Register for this hybrid lecture here.

Link:
eventbrite.ca

Join Dr. A.J. Lowik (Assistant professor of sociology at the University of Lethbridge) in a discussion about how to ask better questions about sex and gender in surveys, and how to use sex and gender data in secondary analyses. This event encourages a thoughtful and critical interrogation of the advantages and shortcomings of different measurement approaches - where the 'best' measure in one respect may have shortcomings in others. We will focus on best practices, such as the process of selecting measures with intentionality, and reporting on those intentions with transparency, humility, and accountability.

Bring your questions about best practices in sex and gender survey measurements and will create an open and inclusive environment for anyone working to integrate sex and gender measurements into their quantitative or qualitative work. 

Join us for this RISE Centre Hybrid event- on Zoom or In-person. 
Register here. 

Address:
155 College St, Toronto, ON

In 1987, the art historian, critic, and curator Douglas Crimp wrote, “It is our promiscuity that will save us.” Crimp’s challenge to the notion of promiscuity as a destructive force offers us a portal into thinking about technologies and practices of queer care and community-building that can help see us through the present moment of polycrisis, and the next.

Rather than shying away from the messiness of our entanglements with each other, or the affective muck that accumulates over time in queer communities, let’s get into the mess together. It is here where we might find the solidarities, relational skills, capacity for risk-taking, and even the possibility of pleasure as we build more durable bonds, grounded in learnings from our own lives, those of our queer elders and ancestors, and the futures we are striving to create."

About the Speaker
Zena Sharman, PhD is a writer and LGBTQ+ health advocate whose work explores themes of community, identity and care. She is the editor of several anthologies, including The Care We Dream Of and the Lambda Literary award-winning The Remedy. Her debut memoir, Staying Power, was published in 2026. Zena has fifteen years’ experience in leadership roles at provincial and national health research organizations and has been a featured speaker at events, conferences, and universities across North America. You can learn more about Zena and her work at <https://www.zenasharman.com/>

Register for this Hybrid event here. Online and In-Person (DLSPH Room 574). 

Link:
eventbrite.ca