Trans+ Virtual Centre of Excellence
The Trans+ Virtual Centre of Excellence (TVCE) is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and advocacy group. The TVCE membership is formed by a collective of international scholars and researchers from within either academic institutes or who may be independent, but all are recognised world-leaders in their field. It also includes researchers who are aligned with Trans+ focused NGO's from across the UK and North America and welcomes ECR's whose imperative/research holds the potential to be world-forming. Their collective intention is to produce new knowledge through working groups and collaboration; leading on initiatives toward public engagement and advocacy; and produce critical mass that benefits Trans+ lives.
The TVCE foregrounds research that supports a safe, caring, and supportive space and operates a non-hierarchical research community through collective co-leadership. It also recognises that members of the TVCE may encounter personal difficulties during periods of research, especially with consideration of lived experiences affecting the Trans+ community across a myriad of intersectional identities, it therefore will always seek to prioritise care and adaptation for all.
The TVCE was founded with the intention to exist beyond the geographic boundaries of a single institution and/or country as an act of preservation and safety during a time of unstable global political turmoil that directly targets Trans+ lives and intersectional marginalised groups. Its "virtualness" creates a safe queer space for Trans+ people irrespective of political upheaval and oppression.
The TVCE meets monthly online, while working groups self-organise to accommodate their members. An asynchronous online space provides members a space to connect between meetings and engage with materials, conversations, and emerging imperatives. And the TVCE holds an annual symposium for the dissemination of members' research through a hybrid setting.
The TVCE is a 100% Trans+ led initiative (all co-leads identify as belonging to the Trans+ community) and we welcome membership expressions of interest from all Trans+ people as well as allies and accomplices to join us.
Queer Acts of Hope
Queer Acts of Hope (QAoH) is a line of enquiry led by the Principal Investigator Dr T. J. Bacon (she/they) through the Guildhall De-Centre for Socially Engaged Practice & Research. The project argues that the Trans+ lived experience occupies a position of queer phenomenological value for inclusive practices to be advocated for and Trans+ lives to be celebrated through close phenomenological examination of the socially engaged artistic practice of transgender artists, communities and activists, alongside the experiences of Trans+ lives in society, law and healthcare.
The TVCE is one of the project outcomes from Dr Bacon's QAoH line of enquiry. It therefore was established to focus on creating a network for research that celebrates Trans+ lives through acts of hope, advocacy, activism and lived experiences. And while the TVCE acknowledges the difficulties faced by the Trans+ community it encourages the qualitative and quantitative representation of these contexts; advocating for outputs that avoid the unnecessary exploitation of trauma narratives.
Our Members
Members' research represents a broad spectrum of world-leading interdisciplinary perspectives.
Each member shares the imperative to develop outcomes that produce world-leading impact, public engagement and knowledge exchange opportunities from their research to benefit Trans+ inclusion and advocacy.
Our membership recognises and supports the Hidden Disability Sunflower π» scheme.
We currently have members from across Australia, Canada, Romania, Sweden, UK and USA. Some of our current membership includes researchers affiliated with:
- Birkbeck University of London
- California State University San Marcos
- Guildhall School of Music and Drama
- Durham University
- Edge Hill University
- Edinburgh Napier University
- George Washington University
- Kristianstad University
- London Metropolitan University
- Manchester Law School
- Middlesex University
- Oxford Brookes University
- Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
- Sheffield Hallam University
- Sordoni Art Gallery
- Swansea University
- Tempting Failure
- The Open University
- TransArt Institute
- TransCore
- University of Edinburgh
- University of the Fraser Valley
- University of Bristol
- University of Glasgow
- University of Maine
- University of Northern Iowa
- University of Oregon
- University of Plymouth
- University of Portsmouth
- University of Salford
- University of Southern California
- University of Stirling
- University of Surrey
- University of Sydney
- University of Vermont
- Urban Soil Institute
- Wilkes University
- York University Toronto
The Working Groups (24/25)
Our working groups for this year are currently being convened and coalescing around shared research interests. We therefore welcome new members to join established groups or make new group proposals. We are particularly keen to welcome increased representation from areas such healthcare, law, social sciences, de-colonial and global majority studies, philosophy, queer geographies, disability studies, and trans-feminist psychology.
Here are some of the groups that have formed (in alphabetical order):
Phenomenologies of Trans+ Art and Activism. Group Lead: Dr T. J. Bacon (she/they) π» - Guildhall School of Music and Drama & TransArt Institute. π’ ππ§
Trans+ Decolonisation. Group Lead: Helton Levy (he/they) London Metropolitan University π’
Trans+ Futures. Group Lead: Pedro de Senna (he/him) - independent scholar. π’ π
Trans+ Kinship and Queer Care. Group Lead: Kars Dodds (they/he) - independent scholar π’
Trans+ Performance, Media and Materialities. Group Lead: Jeff Rufus Byrd (he/him) University of Northern Iowa π
Every group welcomes researchers from other subject areas who are keen to foreground interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practice through their enquiries. The TVCE also encourages researchers to sit outside of working groups or attend them as guests.
Co-leadership (24/25)
Centre Lead for Opportunities, Funding and Case Study Integrity
Dr Susan Hansen (she/they)
Susan Hansen is Europeβs most cited street art scholar. She is an interdisciplinary academic with a background in forensic psychology, visual sociology, and art history. Her unique approach to street art, graffiti, and urban contemporary art is grounded in her intersectional expertise. She is Editor of Nuart Journal, Editor Emerita of Visual Studies and President of the International Visual Sociology Association. Susan is committed to engaging and connecting outsider audiences with contemporary urban art and scholarship through open access publications, symposia, and uncommissioned independent public art.
Centre Lead for Advocacy, Data Dissemination and Impact
Dr T. J. Bacon (she/they) π»
Publishing under the name T. J. Bacon and creating artwork using the moniker tjb, Dr TΕmei June Bacon is a trans-femme pansexual person with hidden disabilities. Her practice as an artist-philosopher foregrounds transgender studies and phenomenology, alongside queer theory, crip theory, disaster studies, and futures to consider visual art, performance art, activism and curation. She is a leading voice in the field of queer phenomenological studies of performance art and a global advocate for intersectional Trans+ inclusion. She has exhibited internationally for over 20 years with a practice rooted in the elemental and esoteric. She is also the founder and artistic director of Tempting Failure which produces and supports international visual art, performance art and sonic art. And she is principal investigator on the Queer Acts of Hope line of enquiry at the Guildhall De-Centre for Socially Engaged Practice & Research. She is the founder of the Trans+ Virtual Centre of Excellence.
Centre Lead for Ethics and Knowledge Exchange
Dr Roan Runge (ze/they)
Roan Runge holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Ze is currently affiliate with Celtic and Gaelic at the University of Glasgow. Their research interests include species, sex/gender, and unstable bodies in medieval Irish literature.
Centre Lead for Intersectionality, Access and Neighbouring
Halo Starling (he/they) π»
Halo Starling is a writer, director, performer, and artist, worldbuilding positive futures in the husk of the capitalist experiment. They are a multi-hyphenate artist whose work in moving images, performance, and writing, explores what it means to be trapped inside structures that are meant to help you. Starling envisions ways out by building worlds where marginalized people find more resources to fully thrive.
Starling is currently a Ph.D. student in Media Arts + Practice at USC School of Cinematic Arts, where they are working on film, new media, and writing projects about trans cinematic aesthetics, auto-theoretical ethnographies, and queer and trans worldbuilding, with an ecological focus. They were a 2024 USC Libraries Summer Fellow in Sustainability Studies, and are currently an artist-in-residence at USC ONE Archives.
Criteria for Membership
Membership is free but is subject to a selection process. We are particularly keen to welcome individuals whose lived experience and/or research extends across marginalised intersectional identities.
- Members should be either completing their doctorates, be early career researchers or established independent researchers with post-graduate qualification(s), each with a demonstrable record of significant publishing in their field. Where significant evidence of research can be presented, doctorate applicants (prior to upgrade) may also be considered.
- Members may also be researchers associated with NGO's, Charities or CIC's that advocate for Trans+ lives, especially across legal and healthcare concerns.
- PhD candidates or those preparing to apply for doctoral study are also welcome to apply but must demonstrate relevant research enquiries and may be asked to take on additional voluntary support roles (such as facilitators within the asynchronous forum or minute taking at meetings etc).
- All members will be required to agree and uphold the rules and values of the TVCE as listed in our asynchronous forum.
- Members should commit to engaging with at least one working group.
- Members should attend the main monthly group meetings as often as possible where schedules and external pressures or responsibilities allow.
- Members are expected to participate in our asynchronous forum; engaging in conversations online on a regular basis to help maintain a healthy, productive and neighbourly online space.
- Members will be invited in March to submit proposals for presentation at an annual hybrid symposium in July.
- Members will be encouraged to publicly represent the TVCE and expand membership growth.
- Members should develop pathways that recognise the TVCE in their research applications for funding or support.
Partnerships
The Trans+ Virtual Centre of Excellence is keen to develop partnerships to further the significance and reach of the research of its membership to better the lives of all across the Trans+ community. We are keen to co-produce workshops, co-curate exhibitions and disseminate research for citation in policy briefings to improve the lives of Trans+ healthcare and laws in the UK and North America. If you represent an NGO, Charity, CIC or advocacy group in these areas and you would like to connect with us to discuss this further please click the button below.
Acknowledgements:
The Trans+ Virtual Centre of Excellence is a project outcome of Dr T. J. Bacon's line of enquiry Queer Acts of Hope which has emerged through generous support at launch through her research residency at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Credits:
Trans+ Virtual Centre of Excellence (TVCE) is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and advocacy group. It was established to focus on creating a network for world-leading research that celebrates Trans+ lives through acts of hope, advocacy, activism and lived experiences.