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Topic

TRANS FATS: A White Trans Social Worker’s Podcasted Autoethnography

School of Social Work

Date & location

• Friday, November 7, 2025
• 9:30 A.M.
• Virtual Defence

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Mehmoona Moosa-Mitha, School of Social Work, ӣ��Ӱ�� (Supervisor)
• Prof. Gaben Sanchez, School of Social Work, UVic (Member)
• Dr. Nathan Lachowsky, School of Public Health and Social Policy, UVic (Outside Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Brenda LeFrançois, School of Social Work, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Aditya Mojumdar, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, UVic

Abstract

My podcasted, autoethnographic thesis ruminates on the question: how is my experience of transgender corporeality mediated by pathologising logics? Drawing on decolonial feminism and disability justice, I review the pathologising ways that transness, fatness, and eating disorders are normatively framed, and connect this pathologisation with the ongoing colonial project. I then explore stories about existing in my small fat, nonbinary trans, white settler body, ultimately arguing that the normative (pathologising) story of fat trans folks with complicated relationships with food and eating does colonial violence to trans people. Along the way, I refuse straightforward answers, remaining critical, uncertain, and curious about how my experiences of systemic marginalisation and privilege always overlap. I conclude by imagining a social work context that is abolitionist and deprofessionalised, centred on principles of harm reduction and community care.