Kristina Olson, presented by the Chair in Transgender Studies & Lansdowne Lecture Series
Presented by the Chair in Transgender Studies & Lansdowne Lecture Series
"Early Transgender Children's Development"
FREE public talk (donations gratefully accepted)
Wed., Feb. 7th, 2018
7:00pm-8:30pm
“Announced on our day of birth or even months before, sex and gender are perhaps the most central social categories that affect our lives regardless of the society into which we are born. While the study of how we come to understand our own gender and the influence gender has on our lives has been central to the study of human psychology for decades, nearly all research to date has focused on people who experience “typical” gender identity (gender identity that aligns with one's sex). In this talk, I will discuss our recent work exploring gender development and mental health in an increasingly visible group of children—transgender and gender nonconforming youth—for whom gender and sex diverge considerably. I will explain how studying gender diverse children enhances our understanding of gender and well-being more broadly and can speak to ongoing debates about gender diverse children.”
Kristina Olson is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington where she is also the director of the TransYouth Project, the first large-scale, national, longitudinal study of transgender children's development. Dr. Olson received her BA in Psychology and African and Afro-American Studies from Washington University in St. Louis and her MA and PhD from Harvard University before beginning her faculty career at Yale University, moving to the University of Washington in 2013. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Arcus Foundation, and the Satterberg Foundation amongst other sources. Dr. Olson has won several early career awards including the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformational Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science, the International Social Cognition Network's Early Career Award, and the SAGE Young Scholar's Award.