Dr. Tobias Wiggins

Dr. Tobias B.D. Wiggins (he/him) is an associate professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Athabasca University (AU). His research centers transgender mental health, queer and trans visual culture, clinical transphobia, accessible community-based wellness, and psychoanalysis. Broadly, Wiggins’ work aims to address the continued psychiatric pathologization of gender variance and to support the efficacy of trans-competent medical care. At AU, he coordinates the University Certificate in Counselling Women, an interdisciplinary program which applies contemporary feminist theory to the practice of counselling. His recent publications appear in the Transgender Studies Quarterly, Studies in Gender and Sexuality, The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, and the anthology Sex, Sexuality and Trans Identities: Clinical Guidance for Psychotherapists and Counselors.

He is currently engaged in two active research projects. The first is a community-based qualitative research project that aims to trace the effects of COVID-19 on transgender communities’ mental health in Alberta, as well as their use of digital worlds for survival and resistance. Second, Wiggins is presenting and publishing on the implications of cisgender adult’s anxious and defensive response to gender non-conforming youth.

Believing that the most efficacious research is grounded in community engagement, Wiggins has always been a strong organizer and advocate for anti-oppressive mental health care for marginalized people. He is a current member of the Alberta Trans Health Network, a collaborative group of healthcare providers, researchers, and community-based organizations interested and actively working in trans, non-binary, and Two-Spirit health in Alberta. He was a board member for JusticeTrans, a not-for-profit that offers legal information about trans rights across Canada. In Toronto, he ran peer-to-peer support groups for trans men at the Sherbourne Health Centre, and he was also long-time crisis line operator at the Trans Lifeline. Wiggins is a certified yoga teacher, and he teaches accessible trauma-informed yoga to the 2SLGBTQ community.

Discover my research

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Research interests

• Transgender studies and gender
• Mental health and feminist psychology
• Psychoanalysis
• Sex, sexuality, and sexual difference
• Queer theory
• Queer and trans visual culture
• Race, whiteness, and racism
• Sex work and pornography
• Social justice
• Disability theory
• Trauma and violence
• Somatechnics/technologies of the body

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Educational credentials

• PhD, Gender, Feminist, & Women’s Studies, York University
• Master’s Degree, Gender, Feminist & Women’s Studies, York University
• Honours Bachelor of Arts, Women’s Studies, Trent University

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