Paula Martin

PAULA MARTIN, then a graduate student at University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, received funding in April 2019 to aid research on ‘Practicing Gender: The Meanings and Uses of Gender Affirming Medicine for Youth in the United States,’ supervised by Dr. Eugene A. Raikhel. This research investigated the meaning and uses of gender-affirming medicine for young people in the United States. Following the themes of embodied gender, knowledge-making and temporality, the researcher engaged in ethnographic participant observation, in-depth interviews with young people, parents, and experts, and analysis of documents both contemporary and historical over the nine months. Observing daily clinical activities at a specialized gender clinic for adolescents as well as attending conferences and interviewing professionals permitted the researcher to investigate the practices that work to align bodily characteristics with individually held gender identities. Furthermore, the researcher attended to the clinical research activities working to produce evidence justifying the effectiveness of interventions such as puberty suppression or treatment with gender affirming hormones. This research characterizes practices of care according to how possible failures of care are named and navigated, and how subjective experiences are valued as knowledge.