Julia Sinclair-Palm

Biography

Dr. Julia Sinclair-Palm (they/them) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, where they serve as the Director of the forthcoming Robert Quartermain Centre for SOGI‐inclusive Excellence in Education (RQCSIEE). Before arriving at UBC, Dr. Sinclair-Palm was an Associate Professor in Childhood and Youth Studies in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton University. They completed their doctorate in Education in the Faculty of Education at York University, an MA in Sexuality Studies from San Francisco State University, and a BS in Psychology from California Polytechnic State University. Her research with young people carries the trace of this interdisciplinary history—across their work, they consider how conceptualizations of children and youth are tied to concerns about violence, risk, and mental health often at the exclusion of other, more complex narratives of identity, gender and belonging. She examines how young people forge new identities, imagine futures and navigate structural inequalities in the midst of these larger, and sometimes restrictive narratives about childhood and youth. 

Conference Presentations

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. “Taming the trans student: Exploring how discourses about protection and childhood innocence impact trans youth.” American Educational Studies Association. Greenville, SC, November 2024.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. “Finding joy in resistance: Trans youths’ stories about choosing a name.” Provost’s Global Forum- LGBT Youth in Global Perspective: Resistance, Resilience, Reimagination. University of Iowa, Iowa City, IO, February 23, 2024.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. “Supporting Trans Students’ Safety and Joy.” University of North Carolina, Asheville Center for Diversity Education. Asheville, NC, November 1, 2023.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. “What does it mean to protect trans children? Exploring debates about the figure of the trans child.” Chair in Transgender Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, September 14, 2023.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia, moderator for panel discussion: Beyond youth empowerment: constraints and possibilities for radical democratic action. Centre for Urban Youth Research (CUYR). Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, April 2022. 

Sinclair-Palm, Julia and Westley Partington. “Finding Joy in a Name: Trans youths’ experiences of names & naming practices.” People’s Names Conference: Identities & Inequalities, 2022.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. Moderator and co-organizer for panel discussion: The (Academic) Trans Agenda: A Conversation About Queer and Trans Pedagogy. Part of Inclusion week 2021. October 2021.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia, Mikayla LaFortune, Jade Petgrave-Cayley, Keegan Prempeh, Jaime Sadgrove, Kaeden Seburn. “How Can You Help? A Guide to Trans Allyship on Campus.” Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, March 2021. 

Thom, Kai Cheng and Julia Sinclair-Palm. “What is Loving Justice? Embodying Transformative Change with Kai Cheng Thom.” Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, March 2021.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. “It’s a giant faux pas”: Exploring trans youths’ beliefs about deadnaming and the term deadname.” Conference session Intersecting discourses, bodies, & inequalities held as part of the Canadian Sociological Association Conference, 2020.

Jones, RJ and Julia Sinclair-Palm. “Queer Family Building: RJ Jones in conversation with Julia Sinclair-Palm,” Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, ON, October 2020.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia and Hannah Dyer. “Drawing Queer and Trans Family: Understanding Kinship through Children’s Art.” Sexuality Studies Association, Vancouver, BC, 2019. 

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. “‘Sometimes people call me trans and I just go with it’: Exploring how youth negotiate their use of the pronoun they.” They, Hirself, Em, And You Conference: Nonbinary Pronouns in Theory and Practice, Kingston, ON, 2019.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. “Lessons from the field: Creating better supports for trans students.” Presentation at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education, Vancouver, BC, 2019.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia and Hannah Dyer. “Drawing Queer and Trans Family: Understanding Kinship through Children’s Art.” Presentation at the Sexuality Studies Association, Vancouver, BC, 2019.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. “Making Trans Youth Count: Questioning Representation in Research about Trans Youth.” Presentation at the American Educational Studies Association, Greenville, SC, 2018.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. “The Child as Queer Emergence: Narrating Trans Identity Development.” Presentation at the American Studies Association, Atlanta, GA, 2018.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. “Conceptualizing the Self across Time: Narrating Trans Identity Development.” Presentation at the American Educational Research Association, New York City, NY, 2018.

Sinclair-Palm, Julia. “’I am Vincent. I have a vagina’: Narrating Embodiment in Trans Youths’ Experiences of Renaming.” Presentation at the American Educational Studies Association, Seattle, WA, 2016. Reviewers’ Selection Paper.

Selected Publications

Sinclair-Palm, J. (2024). Names as a trans technology: Exploring the naming practices of trans youth in Australia, Ireland and Canada. Nordic Journal of Socio-Onomastics, 4 (1), 137-161. https://doi.org/10.59589/noso.42024.16669

Sinclair-Palm, J. (2024). Teaching trans: Pedagogical implications of embodying course content. Reading the room: Lessons on pedagogy and curriculum from the gender and sexuality studies classroom. Ed. Natalie Kouri-Towe. Concordia University Press.

Sinclair-Palm, J. (2023). The Role of Family in Trans Youths’ Naming Practices. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2023.2181450

Sinclair-Palm, J & Chokly, K. (2022). “’It’s a giant faux pas’: exploring young trans people’s beliefs about deadnaming and the term deadname.” Journal of LGBT Youth, 20(2), 370-389. https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2022.2076182

Dyer, H., Sinclair-Palm, J. and Yeo, M. (2020). “Drawing Queer and Trans Kinship with Children: Affect, Cohabitation, and Reciprocal Care.” Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 42(4), 257-276. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2020.1724764

Sinclair-Palm, J. (2022). Trans Youth in Canada. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Sexuality Education. Ed. Louisa Allen and Mary Lou Rasmussen. Cham: Springer International Publishing. (pp. 1-8). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95352-2_88-1

Sinclair-Palm, J. (2020). Queer and Trans Youth Organizing. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, Ed. Cris Mayo and Lisa Weems. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1311

Dyer, H., Sinclair-Palm, J., Joynt, C., Yeo, M., and Tait, C. (2020). Aesthetic Expression of Queer kinship in Children’s Drawings. Journal of Canadian Studies, 54(2-3), 526-543. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/780618.

Sinclair-Palm, J. (2020). Gender and Gender Identity Development Among Young Trans People in North America. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, Ed. Cris Mayo and Lisa Weems. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1549

Sinclair-Palm, J. & Gilbert, J. (2018). “Naming New Realities: Supporting Trans Youth in Education.” Journal of Sex Education, 18 (4): 321-327. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2018.1452347

Sinclair-Palm, J. (2018). Conceptualizing Sexuality in Research about Trans Youth. The Handbook of Sexual Development: Childhood and Adolescence, edited by Sharon Lamb and Jen Gilbert. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108116121.014

Sinclair-Palm, J. (2017). “‘It’s Non-Existent’: Haunting in Trans Youth Narratives about Naming. Bank Street Occasional Papers Series, 2017 (37). https://educate.bankstreet.edu/occasional-paper-series/vol2017/iss37/7

Research Projects

Dr. Sinclair-Palm is currently working on two SSHRC funded research projects, and recently concluded three other SSHRC funded research projects. 

Drawing Queer and Trans Family: Learning about Family through Children’s Art 

In Drawing Queer and Trans Family: Learning about Family through Children’s Art ($91,356), Sinclair-Palm and Dr. Hannah Dyer (P.I., Brock University) explore the social and emotional worlds of children with queer, trans and gender non-binary parents. This project seeks to evaluate how children understand and aesthetically represent LGBTQ2+ family so that their needs and well-being are better assessed. By eliciting drawings and conducting interviews to supplement socio-legal narratives of queer and trans kinship, the project will create knowledge driven by children’s embodied and affective experiences.

---

SSHRC Insight Grant, Transformative Encounters: Gender and Sexuality Pedagogies in Canada

Dr. Sinclair-Palm is a collaborator on a SSHRC Insight Grant, Transformative Encounters: Gender and Sexuality Pedagogies in Canada ($327,938). This 4-year study explores gender and sexuality pedagogies and the possibility of transformative encounters in the classroom as a basis for transforming violence. The project has 3 main goals: First, to develop further collaborative research on gender and sexuality pedagogies. Second, to identify pedagogical strategies and approaches that emerge in the classroom that work to encourage or enhance the capacity of students, faculty, and others to engage in transformative projects that transcend classroom learning alone. Lastly, to build a network of established researchers, community organizations, junior scholars, and students to work towards long-term research and knowledge mobilization collaboration, with the goal of building future support for research and community engaged projects in the area of transformative pedagogies in the future.

---

SSHRC Insight Development Grant project titled, From surviving to thriving: Trans youths’ lives across national borders 

Dr. Sinclair-Palm was the Principal Investigator for a SSHRC Insight Development Grant project titled, From surviving to thriving: Trans youths’ lives across national borders ($40,000). This project examined the well­being of trans youth in 2 international contexts: Ireland and Australia. This 2-year study addressed a gap in research about the international experiences of trans youth and the way youth internationally are using language to render themselves intelligible. Through interviews with trans youth in Ireland and Australia, the project explored how the names they receive, refuse and choose can expose the challenges trans youth face when narrating their identity formation. Participants were invited to create a page in a zine about trans youths’ experiences of re­naming. This zine brought together art, narratives and educational material about naming and trans experience from young trans people internationally.

---

Triggering Education: Relational Readings of Trigger Warnings in the Canadian Post-Secondary Classroom 

Dr. Sinclair-Palm was also a collaborator on a SSHRC Insight Grant titled, Triggering Education: Relational Readings of Trigger Warnings in the Canadian Post-Secondary Classroom ($99,800). This project explored how the language of “trigger warnings” or “content warnings,” has migrated from psychiatric conversations about post-traumatic stress disorder and from online feminist spaces, into conversations about educational sites such as university classrooms. This study investigated the uses of difficult material in classrooms, and the desire for and use of trigger or content warnings in the face of this material.

---

SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant titled, Understanding Gender-Based Violence against diasporic LGBTQ youth

Dr. Sinclair-Palm was also a collaborator on a SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant titled, Understanding Gender-Based Violence against diasporic LGBTQ youth ($29,987). The goal of the project was to provide a broader picture of the current state of knowledge, summarize this research for key stakeholders, and support the development of promising social service practices for LGBTQ youth.

---