Researchers

Citizen-researcher

Mme Claude Amiot is the co-recipient of a research grant from the Engagement program of the 3 Quebec research funds.  She is joining the Canada Research Chair on transgender children and their families and the Research Team as the Citizen-Researcher.

She is a Member of the reflection committee on the Trans and Non-binary issues of Diversity 02, Witness in the framework of the Pour que vieillir soit Gai Saguenay Lac St Jean program and Governor at the Fondation Émergence.

Alexandre Baril ( He/him, PhD in Feminist and Gender Studies) is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Ottawa. His work is at the crossroads of gender, queer, trans, disability, critical gerontology and critical suicide studies. His passion and commitment to equity have earned him several awards for his involvement in queer, trans and disability communities, including the Canadian Association for the Study of Disability’s Tanis Doe Francophone Award (2020), as well as the Equity Award, University of Ottawa President’s Diversity and Inclusion (2021). A prolific author, he has more than 200 communications internationally and more than 75 publications to his credit. He is the author of Undoing Suicidism: A trans, Queer, Crip Approach to Rethinking (Assisted) Suicide (2023).

Djemila Carron is a professor in the Department of Legal Sciences at UQAM. Before joining UQAM, she conducted research on the rights of LGBTIQ+ persons in Switzerland and internationally. She also created the Réseau Droit, genre et sexualités en Suisse romande. Her work focuses on the clinical teaching of law based on critical pedagogies, on the community practice of law, and on gender and sexuality issues in law.

Nicholas Chadi (He/him) is a clinical assistant professor at the Université de Montréal, a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine at the CHU Sainte-Justine and a Clinical Research Fellow (Junior 1) with the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé. He completed a Journalism Fellowship at the Toronto University and a Master of Public Health and a Fellowship in Pediatric Addiction at Harvard University. He is co-director of the CHU Sainte-Justine gender diversity clinic. His research interests focus on substance abuse and mental health among adolescents as well as the characteristics, needs and care trajectories of transgender and non-binary youth.

Lyne Chiniara is a pediatric endocrinologist at CHU Sainte-Justine and clinical assistant professor at the University of Montreal. She obtained her doctorate in medicine from the University of Montreal in 2008 and completed her training in pediatric endocrinology at the CHU Sainte Justine in 2013. She was the first pediatric endocrinologist in Quebec to complete specialized training in the management of transgender and non-binary youth at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Her additional training also focused on caring for young intersex people and their families. She also has a master’s degree in university pedagogy of medical sciences from the University of Montreal. Her research interests are in pediatric endocrinology, specifically on the care of trans and non-binary young people, as well as on the care of intersex young people. She is co-founder and co-director of the gender diversity clinic at CHU Sainte-Justine.

Philippe-Benoit Côté, Ph. D., is Professor at the Université of Québec in Montréal (UQAM)’s Sexology Department. His research focuses on accessibility and structural barriers (sexism, cisgenderism, systemic violence) to sexual health services among young people experiencing homelessness, as well as on the life trajectories behind people’s longterm experiences of homelessness (youth, LGBTQ+, women, men). He is currently leading a CRSH-Savoir project (2020-2025) on the life paths of homeless trans and non-binary youth (in collaboration with Annie Pullen-Sanfaçon, Sue-Ann MacDonald, Edward Lee, and Alexandre Baril).

Julie Christine Cotton is a community health sciences professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Sherbrooke. She is interested in the impact of minority stress on mental health as well as the development of community resources. Her latest work has focused on the issues (psychological, academic, professional) experienced by trans, non-binary and gender-questioning people in Quebec, as well as their experiences in relation to the care and services they are currently offered.

Johanne Clouet is a professor at the Faculty of Law of the Université de Montréal and an associate professor at the Institut des sciences, des technologies et des études avancées d’Haïti. She holds a doctorate (LL.D.) in law from the University of Montreal and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from McGill University. Prior to joining the Faculty of Law of the Université de Montréal, she conducted a post-doctoral project on the protection of the elderly through the Quebec Charter and on advance directives in health care. Her teaching and research activities focus on family and children’s law, the law of persons and access to justice.

Dr. Shuvo Ghosh is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at McGill University, and head of the Gender Variance Clinic within the Child Development Program at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, as well as the Co-Director of the Meraki Health Centre where the Montreal Pediatric Gender Variance Program is housed. Dr. Ghosh was born and raised in Chicago, and did undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He returned to Chicago to complete medical training at University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. Further studies included Pediatric residency at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and fellowship in Developmental-Behavioural Pediatrics at McGill/Montreal Children’s Hospital. In addition to his medical activities, Dr. Ghosh is a founding member of the Meraki Alliance for Whole Person Care, a not-for-profit created to raise funds for allied health services for needy families in Montreal.

Robert-Paul Juster is a neurosciences researcher. His research work focuses on the study of chronic stress by considering the effects of gender, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. Dr. Juster’s research interests include the study of allostatic load, a measure of the long-term consequences of the effects of chronic stress in people. Dr Juster is interested in both the biological and social determinants of chronic stress. In addition to being a researcher, he is the director and founder of the Center for Studies on Sex, Gender, Allostasis, and Resilience (CESAR).

Myriam Laabidi, Professor of sociology at Cégep de Saint-Laurent and holder of a doctorate (Ph. D) in sociology of education. Member of the Board of Directors of the Coalition of LGBTQ + Families for over a year and teaches the reality of trans children in the Sociology of the Family class.

Kévin Lavoie is a professor at the School of Social Work and Criminology at Laval University and a member of the Center for University Research on Youth and Families (CRUJeF). As part of his research, he is interested in assisted reproduction and emerging family realities, as well as social and educational practices with LGBTQ + populations.

As Associate Professor at the School of Social Work at the Université de Montréal, Edward Ou Jin Lee’s research addresses health care access, policy advocacy, movement building and producing knowledge with and about Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous and other People of Color (QTBIPOC) and migrant communities. Drawing from critical, participatory, community-based and intervention research methodologies, Ed aims to deepen understanding of peer-led initiatives by and for oppressed groups, including those who are undocumented, street-involved and people living with HIV. Their interests also include research about how to foster anti-oppressive, reflexive and decolonial social work practice, particularly now within the current COVID-19 context. This practice includes bereavement practice with individuals, families and communities, especially experiencing disenfranchised and complicated grief. Ed’s teaching interests include how to mobilize critical, mindfulness-oriented, inquiry-based and trauma-informed pedagogies in order to foster transformative learning within social work education, including field education.

Sue-Ann MacDonald is Professor at the University of Montreal’s School of Social Work. She has worked for more than a decade as a social worker in a mental health team with people experiencing homelessness, where she has also supported trans and non-binary people. Her research is rooted in taking into account the perspective of marginalized people in order to improve practices for them. She has a great deal of ongoing research related to homelessness, mental health, and justice. She collaborates with Philippe-Benoit Côté, Edward Lee and Annie Pullen Sansfaçon on several projects to better understand and act on the life courses of homeless trans and non-binary youth.

Dr. Manning is Associate Professor of Political Science and Principal of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University. Specializing in Chinese politics, women and politics, and the rights of transgender children and youth, Dr. Manning analyzes political life through the lens of feminist theory, with particular attention to the affective enactment of family ties in social movements and state formation. In her work as a university leader and community organizer, Dr. Manning has co-founded a non-profit organization, advocated for the adoption of human rights legislation in Quebec City and Ottawa, overseen a three-year student-directed program in institutional equity, and built two large grassroots campaigns to run for political office.

Denise Medico, Ph.D., is professor at the Department of Sexology at the University of Quebec at Montreal. Her research activities aim at the development of affirmative and reflexive clinical practices. She works in a phenomenological and situated approach and is particularly interested in questions of gender, body and eroticism. She is also a psychologist at the Méraki Health Center and a sex therapist.

Mélanie Millette, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Social and Public Communication at UQAM and a member of the Communication and Digital Laboratory (LabCMO), where she is responsible for the methodological axis. She is also a member of the Institut de recherches féministes/Feminist Research Institute (IREF) and the Quebec Network for Feminist Studies (ReQEF). Her research focuses on the political uses of social media and the Internet for people in a minority or marginalized position.

Collaborator

Emilie Morand is a postdoctoral fellow at Laval University and holds a two-year MITACS Fellowship. After having defended her sociology thesis in France, she settled and worked in Canada. She is a member of the UQAM Chair for Sexual Diversity and Gender Plurality. Her current research projects focus on the issues of trans and non-binary hospitalized people in Quebec. She specializes in LGBTQ2S+ issues in professional settings.

Dr. Rabiau is clinical psychologist and a couple and family therapist (member of the OPQ and OTSTCFQ). She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at McGill University in 2006 and completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship in Couple and Family Therapy at l’Université de Montréal in 2009.

Marie-Joëlle Robichaud is a professor in the psychoeducation and social work department of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. In her research, she is interested in youth protection services for people who are often marginalized, especially young trans* people.

Annie Pullen Sansfaçon (PhD Ethics, Social work, DeMontfort University, UK) is Professor at the University of Montreal’s School of Social Work and was holding the Canada Research Chair on Transgender Children and their families from 2018 to 2023. Her research is aimed at understanding the experiences of well-being of transgender children.  Rooted in anti-oppressive and trans affirmative perspectives, she proposes interventions and methodologies that support their empowerment.

Yann Zoldan, PhD, is a psychologist and professor of psychology in the department of health sciences at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC). His research interests focus on access to care and clinical practice for marginalized and culturally diverse populations, as well as the prevention of violence and discrimination. He has expertise in qualitative, critical research and in partnership with communities. His clinical experience concerns adults and adolescents, survivors of trauma and, more broadly, marginalized and discriminated populations (racialized and LGBTQ+). He is currently a psychologist, psychotherapist and researcher at the purple clinic (LGBTQ+ migrant and/or racialized clinic).