![Photo of Dr. Hites-Thomas](/sociology/sites/sociology/files/styles/4x6_small/public/2023-02/Hites-Thomas_Jennifer_20230217_0024cweb.jpg?h=43f991c4&itok=AvZJMZpp)
Research
My scholarship examines the medical production of gender, race, and the sexed body. In particular, I am interested in how normative categories such as cisgender, whiteness, and binary sex (endosex) are constructed and naturalized through medical discourse. My previous research focused on the medical and mental health gatekeeping of trans people seeking transition surgery compared to the enablement of cis people’s access to medical technologies such as augmentation phalloplasty. Currently I am investigating how medicine assigns sex to bodies by comparing endosex and intersex diagnoses that share symptoms, treatments, and the same etiology, yet they engender different sex assignments from medical authorities. I specialize in cisgender and trans studies, queer theory, feminist science and technology studies, anti-racist feminism, and medical sociology.
Education
2021 Ph.D. Sociology, Simon Fraser University
Classes Taught
- Sociology of Gender
- Medicine, Body, and Culture
- Race, Immigration, and the Canadian State
- Introductory Sociology