We are delighted to be hosting a roundtable on Thursday 23rd August, 2:00pm - 4:00pm, at METRO Woolwich, with contributions from:
Rosemary Lobban
Department of Psychology, Social Work & Counselling
University of Greenwich
The psychology behind ‘everyday heterosexism’ in the construction industry
Abstract
Rosemary will explain what is meant by ‘everyday heterosexism’ and outline evidence of its prevalence in the British construction industry, as well as the detrimental impact it can have on wellbeing. She will describe how everyday heterosexism has been understood by psychologists to date and the implications that this has had for practice. She will highlight the benefits and criticisms of existing approaches and explain how new theoretical insights address these criticisms. Finally, in light of this theory and emerging empirical evidence, she will suggest practical recommendations for effecting change.
Biography
Rosemary Lobban is a PhD student at the University of Greenwich, London. Her thesis will demonstrate how social constructionist and gender theory can facilitate novel insights into the nature and function of heterosexist microaggressions. She has published work, presented papers and co-organised conferences on social psychological and interdisciplinary perspectives on gender, and has an MSc in Psychological Research Methods.
Sam Martin
Department of Psychology
Anglia Ruskin University
Developing and evaluating QueerViBE! An online intervention to empower trans male and non-binary youth
Abstract
Research states that transgender young people are at severe risk of self-harm and suicide attempts. Furthermore, the majority of LGBTQ+ young people have little to no education on issues regarding gender and/or sexual identity at school. Rather LGBTQ+ youth receive a lot of their education and support online and through social media sites. Considering the prevalence of everyday prejudice targeted towards trans and non-binary youth both in person and online, an opportunity exists for an accessible online intervention that aims to empower trans and non-binary youth and fill a gap in education on trans and non-binary identities.
This presentation charts the journey of developing QueerViBE. An online resource of six themed tutorials aimed at both informing, educating and empowering trans male and non-binary youth. QueerViBE was developed from a discourse analysis of six focus groups: 28 gay, bisexual, trans male and non-binary participants, aged 16-24, discussed their experience of everyday prejudice and microaggressions. Findings highlighted “queer masculinities” as an empowering discursive resource used by the participants to challenge and respond to prejudice encountered in their everyday lives.
From these findings six themed tutorials were developed that combined theory on the social construction of gender and masculinities as well as queer theory. Extracts from the data illustrated how other trans male and non-binary youth negotiate common prejudicial and microaggressive interactions, such as intrusive questions about an individual’s genitals, being misgendered, and invalidating stereotypes.
QueerViBE was piloted with 120 participants, aged 16-21, who identified as trans male, transmasculine, non-binary or gender nonconforming. Initial findings from a mixed methods study will be discussed evaluating the effectiveness of QueerViBE based on data from responses to measures of psychological and physical well-being as well as interviews with completed participants.
Biography
Sam Martin is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University. Their research is focused on developing and evaluating QueerViBE an online practical intervention that aims to empower trans male and non-binary youth using applied discourse analysis and interactive video tutorials. They have a master’s degree in Psychodynamic Counselling and Psychotherapy and have published work about counselling as a site for the dilemmatic negotiation of masculinities.
Chaired by Dr Greg Ussher
Dr Greg Ussher is the CEO of METRO Charity, and has worked at the charity for 11 years. Greg is also a Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Expert with the Council of Europe, a non-Executive Director on Greenwich Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), immediate past Chair of the UK National LGBT Consortium since 2013, Chair of the Kent/Medway LGBT Forum, Chair of the Greenwich Charitable Trust, a Director of Red Zebra in Kent, a Director of Healthwatch Medway and a Patron of Freedom to Donate. Greg is also an Honorary Fellow of the University of Greenwich, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Churchill Fellow. Greg has a PhD in the prevention, treatment and epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections from the University of Sydney.