Science & Policy of Trans Athletes
Join us on WSI Webinar
Join us on the WSI webinar "Science and Policy of Transgender Athletes".
Date: July 13, 2022
Time: 3:00PM EST (12:00pm PST, 9:00pm CET, 4:00am JST)
Format: Presentation, Q & A, and discussion
Language: English (Closed Captions available in English)
Guest Speaker: Ms. Joanna Harper, visiting fellow for transgender athletic performance & a PhD researcher at Loughborough University (England)
Ms. Joanna Harper
Joanna Harper is the visiting fellow for transgender athletic performance at Loughborough University in England and a PhD researcher at the University. In the latter role she is part of a team that is undertaking three studies on the performance of transgender athletes. Two of the studies are laboratory-based studies of the capabilities of trans athletes, while the third is an online examination of athletic performance of trans athletes in selected sports. Ms. Harper was also the first author of a systematic review of hormone-based changes in non-athletic transgender women that was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Ms Harper had previously published the first peer-reviewed study examining the performance of transgender athletes and has authored or co-authored several additional papers concerning transgender and intersex athletes. Ms Harper is the author of the Rowman and Littlefield book Sporting Gender: The history, science, and stories of transgender and intersex athletes.
Ms Harper has worked closely with several international and national sports-governing bodies as they grapple with the complex issues surrounding eligibility policy for transgender and intersex athletes, including the International Olympic Committee, World Athletics, and World Rowing. Ms Harper speaks frequently at international meetings and symposia on the topics of transgender and intersex athletes.
Ms Harper’s interest in the topic of transgender athletic performance grew out of her own gender transition and the subsequent speed loss that she encountered as a sub-elite distance runner. Prior to her late-life career change, Ms Harper worked for several years as a Medical Physicist. She has a master’s degree in medical physics and an undergraduate degree in physics, both earned at Western University in London Canada.