Strathclyde University has hosted the cross-sector seminar ‘TransForming Research Practice: Towards ‘Best Practice’ in Transgender and Non-binary Inclusive Social Research. The seminar was conceived by PhD student Ellis Morgan and Prof. Yvette Taylor.  It was made possible by joint funding from British Sociological Association and Scottish Transgender Alliance.  It brought together over 30 people including academic researchers, voluntary sector professionals, transgender community groups and activists to pool their thinking on shaping the future of transgender and non-binary inclusive social research. 

The seminar responded to a social context in which transgender and non-binary people are in the public eye more than ever before but rates of suicides, hate crime and school and workplace bullying leave no doubt that widespread social marginalization persists. The premise of the seminar was that this cultural complexity produces important responsibilities for those of us seeking to represent transgender and non-binary people’s experiences in our research and asked how we can best equip ourselves as researchers to meet this responsibility. 

Dr. Zowie Davy gave a keynote presentation on ‘Research Assemblages and Epistemological Commitments’. Following Dr Zowie Davy’s presentation, a panel of researchers gave insightful presentations on producing research with transgender.  There was also another panel of voluntary sector organisations designed to spark thinking about ways of working collaboratively across sectors. 

As a result of the day Ellis Morgan and Prof. Taylor have produced a paper offering some foundational thinking on how such ‘Collaborative Foundations in Trans and Non-binary Inclusive Research’ might be taken forward. The paper can be found on the website of the Scottish Transgender Alliance