The Centre for Social Sciences Research (CSSR) and the  Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa  (IDCPPA) at the University of Cape Town invite you to join us for a lunchtime seminar on 19 August 2025 at 12:45pm. The seminar will be presented by Lauren Mx Ron Addinall.

About the Seminar:

The Psychosocial Lived Experiences and Healthcare Needs of Transgender and Gender Diverse Persons in South Africa

A PhD Proposal for a phenomenological study prioritising a psychosocial focus on the life course micro, mezzo and macro level lived experiences of Transgender and Gender Diverse persons in the South African context furthered by capturing the psychosocial-healthcare felt and expressed needs of Transgender and Gender Diverse persons at the micro, mezzo and macro levels of their lived experience.

Adult Transgender and Gender Diverse persons will be recruited to volunteer and consent to participating in two interviews. The first being a retrospective reflection on their childhood and adolescent psychosocial lived experiences, as well as the present adulthood experiences from a descriptive phenomenological lens. The second interview, now from the interpretive phenomenological lens will also retrospectively explore their childhood and adolescence as well as their present adulthood, asking if they had received psychosocial-healthcare support and intervention through these life stages, what would the support and intervention needed to have been?

The intention is to shift and expand the present focus on the medical and psychiatric centred to include the psychosocial and lived experience.

Speakers

Ronald Addinall (He/They) is a clinical social worker, sexologist and academic at UCT with over 30 years professional practice experience across many fields in social work such as generic social work, the specialist fields of military social work, occupational social work, medical social work, clinical social work, social work supervision & social work. As an academic he lectures on the BSW programme and convenes and lectures on the clinical social work programme. He has further specialised in the field of sexology and sex therapy with a particular focus on sexual orientation, gender identity and diverse sexual communities. He is a founding member and past board member of both the Southern African Sexual Health Association and the Professional Association for Transgender Health. He also serves on the World Association for Sexology's TGD Advisory committee. He is a co-author of the South African HIV Clinicians Society's Gender Affirming Healthcare Guidelines.

 19 August 2025
 12:45 - 14:00 SAST
  CSSR Seminar Room, 4.29 Robert Leslie Social Science Building, UCT

Hosted by the Centre for Social Science Research and the Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa