PhD Program (She/Her)
Campus
- Downtown Toronto (St. George)
Fields of Study
- Canada
- Cultural and Intellectual
- Gender, Sex, and Sexualities
- Social
- United States
Areas of Interest
Social histories of trans existence, Transfeminine sub-cultures, transfeminine periodical networks, transfeminine porn studies, transfeminine sex-work, normativity, desirability, and respectability as they relate to 20th-century trans existences.
Working Dissertation
Supervisors
Elspeth Brown
Biography
Chris Aino Pihlak is a trans woman and emerging social historian who studies past articulations of trans feminine existence. In addition to her interest in trans feminine porn studies, she is a scholar of twentieth-century, Anglophone, and overwhelmingly white, trans feminine subcultural periodical networks. She hopes her analyses of the complexities and messiness of past trans lives honours those who built the path she now walks on.
Awards
- 2028 Jeanne Armour Graduate Scholarship in Canadian History University of Toronto
- 2026 Canada Graduate Scholarship Social Sciences And Humanities Research Council Of Canada
- 2022 William Petrie Graduate Student Library Scholarship University of Victoria
- 2021 Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s Program Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Publications
- "Trans Histories by Trans Historians: Special Issue Editor’s Introduction" ( : 2023)
- "A Movable Closet: Constructions of Femininity Among Twentieth Century Transfeminine Periodical Communities" ( : 2023)
- “How Transgressive a Transsexual? The Contradictions in Transgression and Conformity Within Transfeminine Print Erotica” ( : 2022)
Education
MA, History, The University of Victoria
BA, History & Political Science, The University of Ottawa
Cohort
- 2022-2023