Healthcare education and research continue to grapple with the limits of inherited epistemologies: frameworks that have long marginalised\, pathologised\, or erased trans\, gender-diverse\, and intersex lives. Scholarship on \;epistemic injustice \;(Hall 2017\; Wesp et al. 2019) and \;situated knowledges \;(Haraway 1988) shows how these exclusions are embedded in the very processes through which knowledge is produced and legitimised. Insights from gender/sex pluralism (Monro 2005\; 2019\; Preciado 2013) further highlight how institutional systems struggle to \;accommodate the complexity of lived identities \;within and beyond binary frameworks. Transformative inclusion within healthcare settings therefore requires more than updated curricula or revised clinical guidelines: it calls for new methodological imagination (see e.g. Pendleton &\; Pezaro 2025).
\nThis year&rsquo\;s TransCare conference invites \;scholars\, practitioners\, educators\, and community researchers \;to explore how \;creative\, interdisciplinary\, and humanities‑driven methodologies \;can reshape the production of knowledge in healthcare. Building on the 2024 edition&rsquo\;s focus on educational tools\, TransCare turns its attention to the research practices that make such tools possible. We ask how \;arts‑based\, participatory\, speculative\, and community‑led approaches \;can open pedagogical and methodological pathways that affirm gender diversity\, challenge normative assumptions\, and cultivate critical and trans‑affirming pedagogies and research.
\nTo do so\, we aim to foreground methodology not as a technical procedure but as a site where \;knowledge\, care\, and power intersect. Approaches that centre \;lived experience\, relationality\, and reflexivity \;can unsettle dominant epistemic frames and generate new possibilities for teaching and practice. Attending to the \;affective and embodied dimensions of research \;and care (Malatino 2020\; 2022) further highlights the need for methodologies that recognise and value ways of knowing and dealing with trans and intersex communities\, particularly in challenging social and political settings.
\nThe 2026 edition continues TransCare&rsquo\;s commitment to interdisciplinary exchange by emphasising methodology as a site of care\, ethics\, and transformation (Puig de la Bellacasa 2017). \;We welcome contributions that rethink how education and research are designed\, conducted\, interpreted\, and taught\, and that imagine new infrastructures for trans\, gender-diverse\, and intersex&ndash\;inclusive healthcare education.
\n\;
\nScope of Contributions
\nWe welcome contributions from across disciplines\, sectors\, and methodological traditions. Submissions may address\, but are \;not limited \;to\, the following areas:
\nWe particularly encourage submissions that experiment with form\, challenge disciplinary boundaries\, or propose new infrastructures for trans\, gender‑diverse\, and intersex&ndash\;inclusive healthcare research and education. However\, please do not be intimidated: \;all approaches and levels of experimentation are welcome.
\n\;
\nPublication Opportunity
\nWe are also collecting expressions of interest for a \;collected volume on creative\, interdisciplinary\, and humanities‑driven methodologies for trans\, gender‑diverse\, and intersex&ndash\;inclusive healthcare research and education.
\nIf you wish to be considered for inclusion in this edited collection\, \;please indicate this when submitting your abstract by ticking the box in the form. \;
List of References
\nHall\, K. Q. (2017). Queer epistemology and epistemic injustice. In I. J. Kidd\, J. Medina\, &\; G. Pohlhaus Jr. (Eds.)\, \;The Routledge handbook of epistemic injustice \;(pp. 158&ndash\;166). Routledge.
\nHaraway\, D. (1988). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. \;Feminist Studies\, 14(3)\, 575&ndash\;599.
\nMalatino\, H. (2020). \;Trans care. University of Minnesota Press.
Malatino\, H. (2022). \;Side affects: On being trans and feeling bad. University of Minnesota Press.
Monro\, S. (2005). \;Gender politics: Activism\, citizenship and sexual diversity. Pluto Press.
\nMonro\, S. (2019). Non-binary and genderqueer: An overview of the field. \;International Journal of Transgenderism\, 20(2&ndash\;3)\, 126&ndash\;131.
\nPendleton\, J.\, &\; Pezaro\, S. (2025). From midwife to lead perinatal practitioner: A utopian vision. \;Birth\, 52(3)\, 511&ndash\;516.
\nPreciado\, B. P. (2013). \;Testo Junkie: Sex\, drugs\, and biopolitics in the pharmacopornographic era. The Feminist Press.
\nPuig de la Bellacasa\, M. (2017). \;Matters of care: Speculative ethics in more than human worlds. University of Minnesota Press.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n ORGANIZER;CN=Valeria Venditti: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260613T221202Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Dublin:20260911T100000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Dublin:20260912T170000 SUMMARY:TransCare 2nd Edition UID:20260615T171648Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@philevents-web-bd7db559-gt5qm TZID:Europe/Dublin LOCATION:Cork\, Ireland DESCRIPTION:Creative Practices for Trans\, Gender‑Diverse and Intersex Inclusive Healthcare Research and Education 11&ndash\;12 September 2026 | University College Cork
\nTransCare began in 2024 with funding from Research Ireland&rsquo\;s New Foundations scheme to discuss the needs and concerns of intersex\, trans and gender‑diverse people in health settings and envision gender‑affirmative education for healthcare professionals. \;The first edition was hosted in collaboration with \;Society for Women In Philosophy Ireland \;and marked the launch of PATHI\, the \;Professional Association for Trans Health Ireland\, which works to advance trans‑affirming\, evidence‑based healthcare and support practitioners across the island.
\nThanks to the \;Health Research Board&rsquo\;s CES Scheme 2025\, TransCare returns in 2026 with a renewed focus on creative and interdisciplinary methodologies for trans\, gender‑diverse\, and intersex&ndash\;inclusive healthcare research and education.
\nThe conference is organised by Dr Valeria Venditti (they/them\; she/her)\, College Lecturer in Healthcare at the School of Nursing and Midwifery\, University College Cork. The 2026 scientific committee includes people with lived experience\, Dr Valeria Venditti (College Lecturer in Healthcare Ethics)\, Mx Ryan \;Biskupović-Goulding \;(College Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing\, SONM\, UCC)\, and Dr Meg Ryan (Assistant Professor in Psychology and Director of the MSc in Global Mental Health\, Trinity College Dublin)
\nThe CFP is open!
ORGANIZER;CN=Valeria Venditti: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR