Biography

Professional background

After growing up in Australia, China, and several other countries, I spent time in the United States, where I completed my BA degree in cross-cultural and international health. My degree included minor concentrations in African studies, medicine, public health, psychology, and medical anthropology.

I believe that accurate and ethical research emerges from awareness of people’s actual experiences. In addition to having worked as a salaried Editorial Assistant for peer reviewed journal Developmental Psychology, I also served as Founding Director for Lifelines Rhode Island/Cuerdas de Salvamento, a regional non-profit agency that provided advocacy, education and crisis services to people with self-designated genders. Some of my previous professional roles have included bilingual English/Spanish Psychiatric Rehabilitation Caseworker, appointed Human Rights Officer for a supported housing team, and Youth Counsellor. I have also presented on equalities issues to health and human service organisations, law enforcement, and clergy from multiple religions. In addition, I have served on several legislative task forces.

See my website for more information: http://ansaraonline.com/

Research Interests

My PhD Research

I am a polycultural critical psychologist currently living in the UK. As a final year PhD Candidate supervised by Peter Hegarty in the Department of Psychology at the University of Surrey, my research focuses on cisgenderism—discriminatory ideology and behaviour regarding people whose assigned gender categories differ from their self-designated genders and people whose assumed biological ‘sex’ characteristics differ from their actual bodies. Cisgenderism can involve various forms of structural and physical violence.  In some societies, people with self-designated gender may designate themselves and/or be labelled by others as ‘kathoey’, ‘kinnar’, ‘trans’, 'Two-Spirit’, or ‘Bissu’.

States and societies often disregard people's authority to self-designate their gender. For example, a woman is unable to get documentation listing her self-designated gender or she is denied invitations to women-only social gatherings because she was assigned as 'male' or as a 'man'. Psychological and medical professionals also disregard this authority through discriminatory gatekeeping policies. People with self-designated gender are often denied medical care that is readily available to other people.

Research methods I have used to study cisgenderism include  experiments, survey questionnaires, quantitative content analysis, and qualitative critical discourse analysis.

My first study was a quantitative content analysis of pathologising and misgendering forms of cisgenderism in psychological literature on children. The paper based on this research is the first empirical study on cisgenderism in psychological literature, and has been published in the journal Psychology & Sexuality. Click here to read this Publication.

Goals of my research include: increasing awareness of how cisgenderism can affect psychological and medical research and clinical practice; reducing cisgenderism in medical, psychological, legal and social arenas; contributing to evidence-based psychological understanding of cisgenderism in everyday life; and developing effective interventions to reduce cisgenderism.

Publications

http://www.ansaraonline.com/publications

Peer reviewed publications

Ansara, Y. G. (in preparation). Cisgenderism and structural violence: The importance of collaborative system co-authorship in medical settings. To appear in Rivers, I. & Ward, R. (Eds.), Out of the ordinary: LGBT lives. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Hegarty, P., Parslow, O., Ansara, Y. G., & Quick, F. L. (in preparation). Androcentrism. To appear in M.K. Ryan, & N.R. Branscombe (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Gender and Psychology.

Ansara, Y. G. & Hegarty, P. (under review). Generic masculine language as misgendering: Cisgenderism in Feminist research and the importance of non-cisgenderist research methods. Feminism & Psychology.

Ansara, Y. G. & Hegarty, P. (2011, in press). Cisgenderism in Psychology: Pathologizing and misgendering children from 1999 to 2008. Psychology & Sexuality.

Ansara, Y. (2011). Review of 'Gender (2nd edition'). Feminism & Psychology, 21(2), 284-289.

Ansara, Y. G. (2010). Beyond Cisgenderism: Counselling people with non-assigned gender identities. In L. Moon (Ed.), Counselling Ideologies: Queer Challenges to Heteronormativity.  (pp. 167-200).  Aldershot: Ashgate.

Non-reviewed Publications

Lev, A., Alie, L., Ansara, Y., Deutsch, M., Dickey, L., Ehrbar, R., Ehrensaft, D., Green, J., Meier, S., Richmond, K., Susset, F., & Winters, K. (2010). “Statement on Gender Incongruence in Children in the DSM-5,” Professionals Concerned With Gender Diagnoses in the DSM. Located at http://gidconcern.wordpress.com/statement-on-gender-incongruence-in-children-in-the-dsm-5/

Teaching

National Psychology Postgraduate Teaching Award winner for 2011

My current duties at the University of Surrey include supporting students with additional learning needs for the Additional Learning Support Office (ALS). These students have inspired me and taught me valuable insights in their efforts to challenge disablism and to overcome structural barriers to academic success.  I am also currently enrolled in the Postgraduate Certificate in Learning & Teaching (PGCERT) at the Centre for Educational and Academic Development. 

Recent Teaching experience

Fall 2012 Visiting Lecturer, Psychology of Gender, Warsaw International Studies in Psychology (WISP), University of Warsaw, Poland. (Forthcoming)

Fall 2011 Academic Tutor, Developmental Research Methods Tutorials, Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, UK.

Fall 2011 Contributing Lecturer, PSY 3090 Social and Personality Development, Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, UK.

Fall 2011 Visiting Lecturer, Psychology of Sadness, Warsaw International Studies in Psychology (WISP), University of Warsaw, Poland.

Spring 2011 Contributing Lecturer, PSY 3061 Psychology of Gender, Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, UK.

Guest Lectures & Conference Presentations

Recent and Upcoming Guest Lectures & Presentations

Spring 2012 Cisgenderism in organisational and occupational settings. M011 Social and Occupational Psychology. MSc Occupational Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Surrey. (Forthcoming).

Sept. 2011 “Not in our name: How psychologists can effectively resist heteronormativity and cisgenderism in our professions and communities.” Convened symposium and presented research at the 8th ECCP European Congress of Community Psychology, York St John University, York, UK. (Forthcoming).

Sept. 2011 Cisgenderism in psychology: How psychologists can effectively resist cisgenderism in research and clinical practice with young people. To be presented at the 8th ECCP European Congress of Community Psychology, York St John University, York, UK. (Forthcoming).

Jan. 2011 “Making sense of gender.” Lecture given to sixth form students at Surbiton High School. Surbiton, UK.

Nov. 2010 Lecture given in Psychology 844 Diversity Issues in Clinical Psychology.  CUNY Graduate Ctr Neuropsychology PhD subprogram. CUNY Queens College, Flushing, NY, USA.

Oct. 2010 “Service engagement with people outside the boxes: ‘Trans’, ‘Intersex’, and ‘Disability’ in bi/gay men’s health promotion interactions.” Interactive presentation and workshop given at GayCon 2010: Gay Men’s Sexual Health and Wellbeing, 3rd National Conference for Scotland, Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, Scotland.

April 2010 Lecture given in Psychology 353 Psychology of Sex Roles.  CUNY Queens College undergraduate Psychology program.  CUNY Queens College, Flushing, NY.

More...

Please contact me if you wish to discuss possible community-based collaborations, professional trainings, research or publication opportunities, public speaking, or social change activities. I am also very interested in dialogue with people engaging in activism, critical thinking, critical clinical medicine, critical psychology, and/or interventions to address societal and health inequities.