It was terrific to be in Vancouver where spring has already arrived! I was honoured to give the 2025 Stephen Straker Memorial Lecture at the University of British Columbia on March 13, 2025. It was a special pleasure to have Darlene Marzari and other members of the Straker family at the event. This lecture series honours Stephen Straker, a founding member of the Science and Technology Studies program who is remembered for his excellence as a teacher and his profound commitment to intellectual life.
My talk, “Science, Hormones and Transformation,” dealt with the story of Dr Harry Benjamin and the early history of transgender medicine and is drawn from my book Wondrous Transformations (UNC Press, 2023). A big thank you to my hosts in the UBC Graduate Program in Science and Technology Studies and the many colleagues, friends and family who came out to the lecture. I appreciated the engaged audience and their many interesting questions.
