Julia Sinclair-Palm

Dr. Julia Sinclair-Palm (she/they) is 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. She has an MA in Sexuality Studies from San Francisco State University and a BS in Psychology. 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. They are cross-appointed with the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Here are links to some recent work:

Sinclair-Palm, Julia and Chokly, Kit (2022). “‘It’s a giant faux pas’: exploring young trans people’s beliefs about deadnaming and the term deadname.” Journal of LGBT Youth. DOI: 10.1080/19361653.2022.2076182

Dyer, Hannah, Sinclair-Palm, Julia, Joynt, Chase, Yeo, Miranda, and Tait, Calla (2020). Aesthetic Expressions of Queer Kinship in Children’s Drawings. Journal of Canadian Studies, 54(2-3), 526-543. DOI: 10.3138/jcs-2020-0054

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

Sinclair-Palm, J., & Gilbert, J. (2018). Naming new realities: supporting trans youth in education. Sex education, 18(4), 321-327.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681811.2018.1452347

Sinclair-Palm, J. (2019). Conceptualizing sexuality in research about trans youth. In S. Lamb & J. Gilbert (Eds.), Cambridge handbooks in psychology. The Cambridge handbook of sexual development: Childhood and adolescence (p. 261–278). Cambridge University Press. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-33243-013

Dyer, H., Sinclair-Palm, J., & Yeo, M. (2020). Drawing queer and trans kinship with children: Affect, cohabitation, and reciprocal care. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 1-20. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10714413.2020.1724764

Sinclair-Palm is currently working on three SSHRC funded research projects. In Drawing Queer and Trans Family ($50,000), 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.

Sinclair-Palm is also 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 examines the well­being of trans youth in 2 international contexts: Ireland and Australia. This 2­year study will address 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 explores how the names they receive, refuse and choose can expose the challenges trans youth face when narrating their identity formation. Participants will also be invited to create a page in a zine about trans youths’ experiences of re­naming. This zine will bring together art, narratives and educational material about naming and trans experience from young trans people internationally.

Sinclair-Palm is 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 explores 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 investigates the uses of difficult material in classrooms, and the desire for and use of trigger or content warnings in the face of this material.

Research Interests

• Queer and Trans Theory
• Sexuality Education
• Qualitative Research Methods
• Identity Development
• Theories of Teaching and Learning
• Inclusive Practices and Policies
• Community Engagement
• Critical Disability Studies and Crip Theory
• Youth Activism

Courses

• Conceptualizing Adolescence in Childhood and Youth Studies (CHST 3000)
• Queer and Trans Youth (CHST 4102)
• Introduction to Research Methods in Childhood and Youth Studies (CHST 2003)
• Honours Thesis Seminar (CHST 3101)