Rory Wilson

PhD Philosophy

  • Philosophy
  • School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Contact details

Address

Street

40 George Square

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH8 9JX

Biography

Background

(he him) I am SGSAH funded student working on the diagnosis of gender dysphoria, epistemic injustice, and trans experience.

Qualifications

  • MA Philosophy, University of Sheffield (Distinction)
  • BA Philosophy, University of New Hampshire (Cum Laude)

Responsibilities & affiliations

  • MAP Edinburgh (September 2021 - Present)
  • Scottish Feminist Philosophy Network  (September 2021 - Present)

Undergraduate teaching

Subject Tutor: 

  • Understanding Gender in the Contemporary World (2023), longlisted for Student Tutor of the Year Award
  • Knowledge and Reality (2023)
  • Morality and Value (2022)
  • Logic 1 (2022) 

Writing Tutor: 

  • PPLS Skills Centre (2021 - Present)

Research summary

Primarily: Trans Philosophy | Epistemic Injustice | Social Philosophy

As well as: Feminist Philosophy | Gender and Sexuality | Social Ontology | Transgender Studies | Health Humanities

Current research interests

My PhD project centers around the concept of gender dysphoria. In the UK, gender dysphoria is a diagnosis transgender people must receive to receive further gender-affirming care as well as a gender recognition certificate. As an epistemic tool, I find gender dysphoria to carry various unsavory presuppositions reflective of epistemic injustice. I pose that this is a big problem not only for transgender people but also for transgender medicine. In the latter half of my thesis, I (cautiously) suggest that we should abandon gender dysphoria. I propose there are concepts like gender identity that must be ameliorated to compensate and that transgender medicine should move to value gender exploration over unfulfillable certainty. My goal is for my project to be able to balance two poles in these debates in trans philosophy: criticizing medical models of transgender experience while simultaneously motivating the necessity of transgender and gender-affirming medicine.

Current project grants

Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities AHRC DTP

Past project grants

Fulbright Postgraduate Student Award 2018-2019

Conference details

Conference Presentations:

  • "Gender Identity and Inclusion: Adding a Dual-Focus to Norm Relevancy" at Social Ontology 2023, Aug 2023, University of Stockholm 
  • "Testimonial and Discursive Injustices in Transgender Medicine" at  Understanding Value XI, Mar 2023, University of Sheffield 
  • "Varieties Of Misgendering: A Philosophical Account of Deadnaming" at Thinking Trans Trans Thinking, Oct 2020, University of Texas at Austin
  • "Sketching Norms of Nonconformity" at Contextualist Approaches to the Metaphysics of Gender, Mar 2019, Humboldt-University Berlin

Recent Workshop Presentations: 

  • "Suspicions Against the Emancipatory Potential of Gender Euphoria" at Gender Joy, June 2023, University of Glasgow 

Organiser

  • Trans Philosophy Summer School, 2021 at the University of Edinburgh
  • Building Trans Community in Philosophy Workshop, 2023 virtual

Vriesendorp, H. and Wilson, R. (2024) Minority genders in quantitative survey research: a data-driven approach to clear, inclusive, and accurate gender questions. Linguistics Vanguard. https://doi-org.eux.idm.oclc.org/10.1515/lingvan-2023-0025

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