The QTRL at the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto recently announced its 2025-26 Cohort of Fellows.
The QTRL is guided by the leadership of Director Dana Seitler, Professor of English, and Research Associate/QTRL Co-ordinator Christopher (C.G.) Smith.
The following appointments have been announced:
- Ruth Ramsden-Karelse, Martha LA McCain PostDoctoral Fellow. She is currently completing her first monograph, Gays and Girls Make Worlds, which shows how gender and sexually diverse communities of colour living under apartheid in South Africa undertook the politically and culturally significant work of creating more just and expansive realities, with a particular focus on the GALA Queer Archive’s Kewpie Photographic Collection and associated depictions of Cape Town’s lost District Six. Ruth’s next major project will offer the first critical genealogy of the Southern African word moffie.
- Theo Cuthand, Artist in Residence. Since 1995, Theo has been making short experimental narrative videos and films about sexuality, madness, queer identity and love, and indigeneity, which have screened in festivals internationally, His work has also exhibited at art galleries including the Remai in Saskatoon, The National Gallery in Ottawa, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, MoMA in New York, and The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
- Qi Alexander, Martha LA McCain Faculty Fellow. Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Trans Studies in Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at OISE. Their research focuses on Black trans studies, abolition & transformative justice, and education outside of formal school contexts.
- Monica Forrester, Community Organizer in Residence. A 2Spirit Trans Women of color, Monica is an activist, community leader, sex worker, and parent. For 27 years she has been working in community services to bring awareness to the lives of racialized and marginalized Trans and 2Spirit folks that may be sex workers, under housed, unemployed, use substances, and are experiencing systemic and societal violence. As part of the residency, Forrester will create training modules that support marginalized and racialized trans people through harm reduction and peer outreach employment methods and approaches as they apply to work.
- Graduate Research Assistants: Jordan Ranmarine (PhD in Sociocultural and Medical Anthropology) and Stephanie Sawah (PhD. student in Women and Gender Studies),
- Graduate Dissertation Completion Award Recipients: Skylar Cameron (Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in Voice Performance) and Ferdinand M. Lopez (PhD candidate at the Women and Gender Studies Institute).
- Undergraduate Research Assistants: Luna Galvez Pozo, Jesse Grant, Franca Ciannevei, Thea Weaver, Lorraine Pan, Benji Savage, Alia Earas, Julia, Zicong (Joseph) Zhang, and Fernanda Alderete Hernandez.
Read much more about this fascinating group of individuals HERE, and look for exciting discussion and research to follow!
Announcing The Queer and Trans Research Lab (QTRL) 2025-26 Cohort
