Q&A with Dr. Tobias Wiggins

Hello! Thank you for bringing me to The Hub for this interview. I’m an assistant professor at Athabasca University in the Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences. Our faculty is comprised of three centres, and I am a part of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Women’s and Gender Studies. I am also the coordinator for the Undergraduate Certificate in Counselling Women (UCCW), which is a one-year certificate program that applies intersectional feminist theory to the practice of counselling and to mental health professions.

I hold a PhD from York University in Gender, Feminist, & Women’s Studies—both my master’s and undergraduate degrees are in the same field. My past research has spanned many topics, some of which include psychoanalysis and film, feminist pornography, sex work, cultural appropriation and yoga, the uses of “shame,” queer art and cultural production, psychoanalytic theories of perversion, and transgender health. I have a strong interest in mental health, and in particular, I am invested in carving out a non-pathologizing space for queer, transgender, and gender non-conforming people in psychoanalytic theory and within the practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Well, not to be too cheeky, but one of my areas of expertise is undermining the notion of holding expertise! A lot of queer and feminist research inherently questions power hierarchies which position certain individuals—often those who are white, middle class, cisgender, settlers, and male—as the expert. A critical engagement with these powerful, yet normalized dynamics is reflected in my research endeavours, which are often collaborative, aim to centre the voices of marginalized people, and attempt to foster meaningful social change as a part of the process.

That said, I typically have many projects on the go, and they fall within my current areas of specialization, including transgender studies, psychoanalysis, mental health, feminist psychology, critical whiteness studies, sex and sexuality, and queer visual culture.

In an upcoming article, which will be published in Studies in Gender and Sexuality, I make use of science fiction literature and psychoanalysis to interrogate the anxiety that arises in clinical, psychiatric settings with transgender patients. In my archival research with psychiatric cases from the early 1900s, I uncovered an incredible pencil drawing done by a gender non-conforming patient. This patient was in treatment for their gender difference, which at the time was considered to be a mental illness. They were asked to draw their experience of gender. To help us better understand etiologies of clinical transphobia, instead of analyzing the drawing itself, I choose to analyze the psychiatrist’s interpretation of the drawing. This is an example of research that aims to flip traditional power structures.

I’ve also started a project that aims to better understand the effects of COVID-19 on transgender and gender non-conforming people’s (TGNC) mental health in Alberta. This timely research will not only trace and catalogue the multifaceted negative impacts of the virus, but also, trans people’s use of digital worlds for survival and resilience. These community-based digital adaptations allow TGNC people to thrive through this time of acute struggle and uncertainty, and to collectively overcome institutionalized mental health barriers. I hope to employ digital storytelling methodologies, allowing my research participants to produce and disseminate their own visual representations about their experiences of COVID-19.

Many of the systems that we currently have in place to “support” transgender and gender non-conforming people actually act contradictorily, as acute barriers to care. In my community-based advocacy and consultation, I witness again and again how people with lived experience of oppression hold a deep knowledge of social transformation. I want my academic research to honour and prop up that knowledge so that it can be further valued, disseminated, and utilized. Also, I hope my research outputs can encourage those in positions of power to listen in ways that they largely haven’t historically, to really heed the voices of those they purport to help, and to make tangible space for social justice.

There are so many wonderful places to educate yourself about transgender issues, mental health and systemic oppression, psychoanalysis, and feminist psychologies. One place would be at Athabasca University in our Women’s and Gender Studies program or our Undergraduate Certificate in Counselling Women. In the coming year, I will launch a course in Transgender Health at AU, so stay updated! However, outside of academic institutions, there is a wealth of books, blogs, activisms, and films available on various topics pertaining to these social issues. For those interested in Transgender Studies, the Transgender Studies Reader 1 & 2, or the academic journal, Transgender Studies Quarterly, may be a good place to start. The anthology, Trapdoor: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility, provides an excellent collection of essays that question the paradoxical nature of increased trans visibility in the mainstream. Psychoanalysis is still far behind in terms of non-pathologizing transgender theorizing, but I would recommend the work of Oren Gozlan, Trish Salah, Patricia Gherovici, and Griffin Hansbury. Someone looking for a basic, Trans 101 could also check out:

• Trans 101: The Basics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ZzpTxjgRw
• GLADD Media Reference Guide https://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender
• Complete Keywords section of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, Volume 1, Numbers 1–2.
• Stryker, Susan. “Terms and Concepts.” In Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution, 2nd ed, 10-40. Berkeley: Seal Press, 2017.
• Stryker, Susan. “(De)Subjugated Knowledges: An Introduction to Transgender Studies.” In The Transgender Studies Reader, edited by Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle, 1–18. New York: Routledge, 2006.
• Vincent, Benjamin William.  (2018). “Studying trans: Recommendations for ethical recruitment and collaboration with transgender participants in academic research.” Psychology & Sexuality, (9:2), 102-116. DOI: 10.1080/19419899.2018.1434558

This is a large undertaking that I’m quite excited about. I am currently revising both the structure of the Undergraduate Certificate in Counselling Women (UCCW) and the content of its core courses. Generally, the new direction of the UCCW will reflect contemporary, intersectional, and non-gender essentialist feminist scholarship. The revisions will echo the latest transformations of our discipline, which have moved feminist scholars towards a critical engagement with gender beyond a singular focus on the hegemonic category of cisgender women. Instead, the new certificate will provide students with an accessible, short-term learning option in gender, intersectional feminist psychology, marginalized people’s mental health, and social justice counselling.

One proposed name for the new certificate is the Undergraduate Certificate in Feminist & Social Justice Counselling and some of the new proposed courses are “Transgender Health,” “Critical Race Psychologies,” “Critical Disability and Mad Studies,” and “Violence, Gender, & Race: Transformative Justice Approaches.”

The Transgender Studies Salon was one of my first initiatives at Athabasca University. I wanted to bring accessible transgender scholarship, poetry, and novels to our academic community (and beyond!). The goal was to create a recurring, carefully curated reading group, meant to inspire interdisciplinary collegial discussion. After three meetings, I can stay that it’s been quite successful, with a formidable membership. The Salon has invited conversation amongst faculty, tutors, and staff who may not have a strong background in these topics, which ultimately also makes our university a safer space for transgender and gender non-conforming students. Some of the Salon’s topics include trans visibility and cultural production, poetry and indigeneity, the phenomenology of transphobic violence, history transness & blackness, activism and aids, and transgender childhood.

Thanks for this great question. Activism and advocacy play a pivotal role in my research development. I’ve already spoken about centering the voices of marginalized people and attempting to foster meaningful social change throughout my projects. But perhaps what I can add here is that my research challenges a traditional paradigm that is “extractive” – a kind of data “taking” without collaboration or clear benefit to those involved.

The digital storytelling methodology that I aim to use for my upcoming COVID-19 research deliberately opposes extraction through digital arts. In collaboration with Re•Vision Centre for Art and Social Justice, trans and non-binary research participants will undergo a series of storytelling workshops, making use of cutting edge technologies to foster dialogue about systemic injustice and resilience in the pandemic. The end result – digital stories imagined, recorded, and edited by the participants – can then be shared within their various communities. For example, we may partner with the Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria to create a permanent, open-access home for their finished pieces.

There are so many wonderful organizations and grassroots movements that I have had the pleasure to meet since moving to Edmonton. Supporting these initiatives is another great way to become educated: Shades of Colour, the QUILTBAG, RaricaNow, and the Pride Center are a few. A new LGBTQ+ Wellness Centre has recently opened up in Edmonton. I’ve been working more closely with another new local transgender health initiative called the “Alberta Trans Health Network,” which aims to optimize education, establish and improve referrals, and act as a consultation body.

You can stay updated by visiting my website at tobywiggins.com, or following any of my social media: Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and Academia.edu.