Profiles in Sexuality Research: "Treating Gender and the Politics of Evidence in Transgender Medicine"

Postdoctoral fellow in the Thompson Writing Program, stef shuster, will be presenting "Treating Gender and the Politics of Evidence in Transgender Medicine".

How do healthcare providers make decisions within uncertainty? Current trends pinpoint evidence-based medicine as helping to alleviate uncertainty in medical decision-making. Yet, transgender medicine holds a dubious distinction of being a medical arena marked by both vast amounts of uncertainty, and no rigorous scientific evidence to support clinical practices. Using archival research, observations of medical conferences, and interviews with healthcare providers, I found that many providers of trans medicine are eager to emphasize the rhetoric of evidence-based medicine by pointing to medical artifacts such as clinical guidelines and diagnostic labels. These form of "evidence" to guide decision-making are institutionally legitimated, yet scientifically unsubstantiated. Furthermore, the expectations surrounding (normative) gender beliefs that give form to these artifacts, remains unnoticed.

Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to csgd@studentaffairs.duke.edu.