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Noah Adams PhD student - University of Toronto Canada

• 02.08.2024-27.09.2024
  

  The Right to Say Yes: An Institutional Ethnography of Transgender/Autistic Group Formation and the impact of these groups on Confronting Challenges to Autistic People’s Capacity to Consent to Transgender Healthcare

  My objectives through participation in the Brocher residency are threefold.

  1. Complete the manuscript of my dissertation and submit it to my PhD supervisor, Dr. Jamie Magnusson, for approval to defend.
  2. Engage with and learn from other Brocher community members during my stay. I particularly hope that this will lead to future opportunities for collaboration.
  3. Prepare and submit for publication the following two draft articles extrapolated from my dissertation research. Both of these are drafted in rough form and would benefit from the time and solitude provided by the Brocher Foundation Grant in order to be ready to submit for publication.
     a.) The literature review, for which I have collected and catalogued all publications on the transgender/autism nexus (approximately 654 articles published between 1996 and the present day).
     b,) An article exploring the use of institutional ethnographic methodology with this population.

  My expected outcomes regarding this process include the following.

  1. Complete the manuscript of my dissertation and submit it to my PhD supervisor, Dr. Jamie Magnusson, for approval to defend,
  2. Finalise and submit for publication two article drafts related to my dissertation research.
  3. Obtain a fuller understanding of the scope and goals of transgender/autistic communities, especially regarding transgender health care access.
  4. Complete a text (my dissertation) that advocates for the capacity of autistic individuals to make health care decisions regarding transgender health and without their autism being taken as de facto proof of incompetence. This dissertation will, for instance, result in the creation of a training module that can be used to provide information on this population to transgender health care practitioners.
  5. Make connections with other international scholars in diverse health care related fields..

  I ultimately intend to publish my dissertation in a revised and more publicly accessible format. If there is time I will create a book proposal while at the Brocher Institute.

   

Noah Adams lives and works in Toronto and the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishnabeg, Chippewa, Haudenosaunne, and Wendat peoples. He is a researcher, advocate, and student at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, where he is completing a PhD in Adult Education and Community Development. Adams’ PhD work expands on his recently published book Trans and Autistic: Stories from Life at the Intersection (with Bridget Liang; Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2020) and explores the development of transgender/autistic community groups. He plans to interview transgender/autistic community leaders in Canada, the United States, and the Netherlands. Adams works with the City of Toronto’s shelter system providing support to homeless seniors and mothers and families. He also volunteers extensively and is currently working with the Transgender Professional Association for Transgender Health, an international network he co-founded that held its inaugural academic conference in July 2021.

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