Speakers
Thursday 8 October
Annie Pullen Sansfaçon – Keynote
Annie Pullen Sansfaçon, is a full professor at the School of Social Work at the Université de Montréal, and holds Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Partnership Research and Empowerment of Vulnerable Youth (CRC-ReParE). This chair succeeds her former tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Transgender Children and Their Families (CRC-ETF) and aims to produce empirical, intersectional knowledge on the dynamics of social exclusion and inclusion of vulnerable youth, notably trans and non-binary youth and youth who detransition.
From 2023 to 2025, she was appointed as an Associate Vice-rector for First Peoples Relations in the Vice-President’s Office for Strategic Planning and Communications, and since September 2025, she has served as Deputy Vice-rector at the Vice-President office for Global Engagement and First People at the University of Montreal. She co-founded and co-directed, until 2026, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Intersectional Justice, Decolonisation and Equity (CRI-JaDE) and has lead the development of a large network of researchers and partner organizations invested in questions related to gender diverse youth in the province of Quebec and beyond.
In her career, she has authored over 220 publications, including 7 books, 43 book chapters, over 120 peer-reviewed journal articles, and has contributed to research programs totaling over $50M CAD in-funded projects. She has been an Honorary Research Associate at Stellenbosch University in South Africa since 2017, and was induced to the College of the Royal Society of Canada in 2023.
Picture by Amélie Philibert, Université de Montréal
Friday 9 October
Michael Barron – Keynote
Dr Michael Barron is a social scientist, activist and human rights researcher whose work focuses on how communities pushed to the margins build power, sustain each other, and shape public policy. Over more than three decades, he has worked across civil society, government and international organisations on LGBTQ+ rights, youth policy and social inequality.
He is the author of How Ireland’s LGBTQ+ Youth Movement Was Built: Civil Society in the Pursuit of Social Justice, which traces how self-organised communities drove major changes in Irish law and policy, including in the areas of equality, education and social reform. His work centres community knowledge, collective action and narrative as forces that can shift public debate and create lasting change.
Michael has played a central role in some of Ireland’s most significant social change movements, including marriage equality, education reform and the removal of structural discrimination in schools. He has advised bodies such as the Council of Europe and has led work on strengthening collaboration between government, philanthropy and civil society.
His current work focuses on protecting and rebuilding community power in a more difficult climate, including the rise of far-right mobilisation, disinformation and increasing pressure on minority-led advocacy.
Panel discussion on Thursday
E. Kale Edmiston
Dr. E. Kale Edmiston is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. He is interested in understanding developmental risk factors for depression and anxiety disorders. His work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Brain Behavior Research Foundation, and an endowed fund from an individual donor. As a student, he founded The Trans Buddy Program, which paired trained advocates to attend healthcare appointments with transgender people and was the first program of its kind in the United States. It has since been replicated across the US and around the world. Dr. Edmiston served as a chapter co-author for the WPATH Standards of Care Version 8, and he has authored over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and conference proceedings in psychiatric neuroscience and transgender health. As a transgender scholar, Dr. Edmiston has been a leading voice advocating for the inclusion of transgender individuals as co-creators of scientific knowledge. His work offers insights into how identity is embodied and how scientific inquiry can honor human diversity without pathologizing it.
Matilda Wurm
Matt/Matilda Wurm is a certified psychologist who began their academic career as a pain researcher studying mechanisms leading to the development and maintenance of chronic pain and comorbid emotional problems. Today Wurm is an Associate Professor in Health Psychology and a Lecturer in Social work at the school of Behavioral, Social, and Legal Sciences at the University of Örebro. They are, together with Tove Lundberg and Anna Malmquist, a founder of the research group QueerPsychology Sweden (Queer Psychology in Sweden – QueerPsy) focusing on the health and wellbeing of LGBTQI+ communities. Wurm has co-edited the first Swedish book on LGBTQ+ psychology published in 2017 as well as the book “Trans: Fakta, forskning erfarenheter” [Trans: Facts, research and experiences] in 2023, which received the Prisma literature price.
The last years they have, amongst others, headed a 4-year project on minority joy in trans communities, which included an intervention study. The work on minority joy highlighted the diverse range of positive experiences prevalent in trans communities, including feelings of both joy and peace, as well as pride in personal development. This work resulted in Wurm receiving the award “Årets hjälte/This year’s hero” from the trans-organization FPES in 2023. Other projects have included a focus on minority stress and coping in diverse LGBTQ+ communities, young transgender and gender diverse people and their parents, studies on LGBTQ+ during COVID-19, and minority stress and micro-aggressions at the workplace.
Picture by Jesper Mattsson, Örebro University
Miia Koskela
Annie Pullen Sansfaçon
Annie Pullen Sansfaçon, is a full professor at the School of Social Work at the Université de Montréal, and holds Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Partnership Research and Empowerment of Vulnerable Youth (CRC-ReParE).