2024 Margaret Angus Research Lecture
Matthew Edwards presents; Sex Education: Hormones, HRT and Intersex Bodies in the Queen's Medical Curriculum 1923-1968
Thursday, November 21st, 7-9pm.
Botterell Hall, Queen's University Room B139
This talk is free of charge and open to the public. Please note, this talk contains transphobic/anti-intersex commentary, nudity, and discussion of anti-2SLGBTQI medical violence and/or conversion therapy.
Access to gender-affirming healthcare –up to and including hormone replacement therapy (or HRT)— has become a cornerstone of modern 2SLGBTQI+ activism in Canada. The use of sex hormones in Canadian medicine has not always, however, been grounded in recognizing and affirming gender diversity. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, sex endocrinology often circulated as a new means of ensuring patients’ conformity to ‘normal’ sex and gender traits. The consequences of this ‘normalizing’ approach to bodily or behavioural difference manifested in many places –including the university classroom.
This year’s Margaret Angus Research Fellowship project examines the educational history of sex hormones within Queen’s University’s medical program during the early-to-mid twentieth century. By analyzing course records, student notes and anatomical models used at Queen’s, it documents how intersex and other queer bodies were exhibited as something pathological for generations of physicians-in-training. Tracing the circulation of this pathological model and its influence over the earliest gender identity clinics in Ontario will enable better understanding of how transgender and intersex Canadians historically resisted, re-tooled or rejected physicians’ approach to their bodies.
Biography:
Matt Edwards (he/they) is a PhD Candidate in Tri-University History program. He holds a Master's in History from Carleton University, Ottawa, and has previously worked within the NGO and heritage sectors as a coordinator, program interpreter and educator. Matthew's doctoral research documents the history of conversion therapy in the Canadian healthcare system, looking specifically at its presence within medical school curricula and clinical training in central Canada during the 20th century. Their research interests include the history of mental healthcare, gender, sexuality and education.
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