Recently, I was interviewed by Queers of the World, where I shared some of my experiences as a trans researcher STEM. Watch below to hear more ..read more

I’m perpetually behind with updating this and I have plenty of other updates, but those will need to be summarized in a different post. As previously promised, I wanted to outline the process I took to update my name and gender marker as a US citizen living in Sweden in hope this is helpful for someone else. This was not a very intuitive process and required hours of research and some uncertainty. This worked for me, but I cannot guarantee it would work in all situations, nor am I offering official legal or immigration advice (proceed at your own risk). Unlike guides for doing this within the ..read more

This last month has been a whirlwind between various projects and travel. I’ve been away for most of the last two weeks and will be off again next week. A paper that I am co-author on received substantial media attention a few weeks ago, which meant I pretty much dedicated an entire week spanning all waking hours to giving interviews. It was really an honor to contribute to this project and even more so that it was so widely covered in the media!! Amongst the excitement from the release of the paper (which is also my first publication solely published under Tristan!), I also had to reconcile m ..read more

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks now since getting top surgery. Physically, I’m recovering swiftly and very happy with the results. My main struggle has been a mix of cabin fever and being forced to go from being very active to fairly sedentary. I’m finally allowed to lift more than 2.5 kg/5 lbs. so that’s a major step in the right direction! Day trip to Stockholm to get my new passport. I do not recommend 6 hours on a train and full day in Stockholm 12 days after top surgery, but I’d waited 4 months for this appointment so I wasn’t interested in pushing it back another 4 months. Last week I ..read more

I realize it has been some time since my last post – I had a pretty crazy June between fieldwork and numerous deadlines (many international collaborators tend to ramp up their research in the summer while all of Sweden is wrapping things up to go on vacation for July). Oh! And I had top surgery on June 30! Picture: Early June fieldwork crew Let me start by saying, I hadn’t planned this. Yes, I’ve wanted top surgery for many years and had done tons of research on the procedures available, recovery, and risks, but the specific timing? No, I had 3 days notice. Since moving to Sweden, I had we ..read more

I have been pretty busy lately planning and organizing fieldwork coming up in a few weeks. Things are thankfully starting to come together. The funny thing about travel though, is that it’s one of the few times I really become aware of my identifying documentation. For instance, I’ve booked accommodation under my deadname and my driver’s license doesn’t reflect any changes (the wonderful combination of biking everywhere and efficient public transport means I only drive when doing fieldwork these days). I don’t think anyone looks very closely at these types of things, but I’m sure it will come ..read more

Oof, I have been busy lately and I’m realizing it’s been several weeks since I last blogged. Proposal season is in full swing (I just submitted my first “adult” proposal as PI!) amongst manuscript deadlines and planning multiple fieldwork excursions. With numerous applications due, I’ve been encountering a common theme lately: what name and gender do I apply under? An example: to register with the major research/funding application portal in Sweden, you need to add your Swedish social security number (personnummer). This number is used for pretty much everything in Sweden and has your birthday ..read more

I will start by saying that coming to terms with my gender and pursuing transition has been the greatest gift to myself. The positives significantly outweigh the burden of stress associated with transition. On its face, I have everything figured out. Complete composure. But there’s a lot that people don’t see. For instance, I’ve dedicated many hours researching how to change my name and gender marker (legally, socially, professionally). The current societal structures make this unnecessarily difficult, and I won’t lie, there have been multiple times I’ve questioned if it’s actually worth the s ..read more

First, an *announcement* – Version 1.0 of the Name Change Guide for Trans* Academics is live! I’ve been taking notes as I’ve been going through the process – I hope this can be useful for someone else. Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions, comments, concerns – or if you want to contribute to this guide or other resources in the future! Otherwise, I will stick to a quick update this week – of course there is a lot going on in my life, both personally and professionally, but it’s mostly positive, so I will take that as a win. Amongst the positives in my life, I’ve been feeling a bi ..read more

I’ve been feeling like my life lately has been a lot of paperwork, logistics, and constantly having to put myself out there. I’m continuously coming out to new people and traversing this odd space of having two different simultaneous identities. I’ve been working through changing my name on my previous publications – this has been a somewhat frustrating process. First, I want to say that I’m very thankful for the work done by the Name Change Policy Working Group, which resulted in trans inclusive name change policies by most major publishers in 2021. These policies are intended to protect the ..read more