Sexual Violence, Female Masculinity, and Epistemic Substitution
I am an incoming PhD student in Sociology at McGill University.
My research examines the epistemology of sexual violence against transmen. Building on my MA work in feminist narrative inquiry and socio-legal analysis, I develop the concept of epistemic substitution: the displacement of sex by gender identity as the primary interpretive frame for harm. This concept was first developed through my analysis of sexual-assault adjudication, where courts must recognise the complainant and interpret the harm at the same time.
This analysis is not a withdrawal of recognition. It is an argument for better recognition: one capable of naming both who transmen are and how violence against us is organised.
Large North American surveys consistently report high rates of sexual assault among transmen, yet these experiences are rarely examined as problems of interpretation. My work asks what becomes visible, and what disappears, when sex-based patterns of vulnerability are reorganised through gender identity categories.
I argue that transmen belong within feminist analysis, not at its margins. Drawing on feminist rape theory, socio-legal scholarship, and theories of epistemic injustice, I examine how sexed embodiment, female masculinity, and institutional recognition shape whether violence is recognised, misread, or made unintelligible.
My doctoral research will extend this work through larger-scale qualitative and quantitative study, with attention to courts, policy frameworks, and survivor discourse.
Professional Backround
Before becoming a graduate researcher, I worked as a Registered Nurse specializing in psychiatric care, with experience across acute, tertiary, community, and educational settings. My roles included psychiatric stabilization, tertiary eating-disorder treatment, youth mental health, clinical supervision, and psychiatric-nursing education.
This clinical background informs my research on trauma, narrative, and recognition. Psychiatric nursing requires close attention to how people make sense of overwhelming experiences: what can be said, what remains fragmented, and how the listener shapes what becomes speakable.
My academic work extends this concern into feminist narrative inquiry and socio-legal analysis. I examine how transmen narrate sexual assault in contexts where available language may obscure rather than clarify their experiences. Across both nursing and scholarship, my central concern is how trauma becomes legible, to oneself, to institutions, and to others.
Profiles:
Pubic Statement (February 2025)
