Making the world a safer and kinder place for trans people
Dr. Talia Bettcher joins Waterloo as the Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair in Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Trans Community Resilience
The University of Waterloo is honoured to be the new academic home of Dr. Talia Bettcher, who joins the School of Social, Political and Historical Research on September 1, 2026. Bettcher is internationally recognized as a ground-breaking philosopher and scholar in the interdisciplinary field of transgender studies and an award-winning teacher with decades of leadership experience in academia and in the trans community.
As one of Waterloo's prestigious Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs, she will receive long-term funding and institutional support to lead an ambitious research program aligned with Canada’s strategic priorities. Bettcher will conduct community-engaged research on gender-based and transphobic violence, working with community partners to develop new frameworks for understanding trans experiences and translating that knowledge into practical tools, policies and interventions.
Q & A with Dr. Bettcher
As a founding scholar in trans philosophy, tell us about your research and community engagement.
When I first started doing what came to be known as “trans philosophy” I didn’t have a method expressly formulated in my mind. I was simply motivated by this thought: “The current ways of making sense of my trans experiences don’t work. But I’m a smart woman. Why don’t I try to figure it out on my own?” It wasn’t until trans philosophy began to take off that I could turn around and really say, “Ok. So, that’s what I was doing.”
What I was doing was describing experiences of trans people that didn’t make sense in the mainstream and that weren’t captured by the leading theories. And then I created ideas – concepts – that allowed me to illuminate various types of trans experiences and how they fit together. My foundational concern has always been structural violence and abuse against trans people and its intersection with sexist structural violence and abuse.
You’re joining the University of Waterloo after many years working as a scholar in the U.S. What factors influenced your decision to make this move at this point in your career?
I knew I had to leave. As a green card holding trans woman and out-spoken academic in an area of study that the Trump Regime deems “ideological”, it just didn’t feel safe anymore. My family in Canada were very worried. I was planning to return to Canada, leaving my job and my entire life behind. My prospects felt dim. Then came the opportunity to apply for the Canada Impact Research Chair (since renamed Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair). This Chair seemed an ideal way to bring everything that I’d been doing for two decades to the next level at a time when the work was really needed. And the University of Waterloo, with its emphasis on creativity, community-engagement, and social impact, seemed the perfect place to be. The philosophers here are amazing. And there’s such a strength in feminist philosophy.
What excites you most about working with Waterloo students, and what impact do you hope to have on the next generation?
It has long been my desire to work with students at the doctoral level on trans philosophy. While I have done a great deal of informal mentoring and have served as an external committee member for PhDs, my previous department had only an MA program. So I have never been able to supervise PhD students interested in trans philosophy.
Students (both graduate and undergraduate) at the University of Waterloo come expecting an emphasis on creativity, community-engagement, and social impact. These are precisely the sort of students that I want to work with. One impact I’d like to have, aside from making the world a safer and kinder place for trans people, is to provide students the skills and intellectual resources they need to transform the discipline of philosophy into something that can actually survive into the future.
How will your ongoing research create impact within the trans community and help all people understand and strengthen democratic resilience?
In my work so far, I created ideas for the trans community. I presented these ideas at community events that focused on trans violence, or trans health issues. With the trans community, I used these ideas to, for example, develop policy recommendations for appropriate treatment of trans people by LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department). I also found creative ways to disseminate my ideas through performance arts at local events.
Given the global rise of anti-trans politics, however, my emphasis has shifted. It is clear that the current ways of responding to anti-trans politics and theory are not working. New strategies are needed. New arguments. New ideas that allow for conversations that people are afraid to have, but need to have. By understanding relations between nontrans and trans people, by developing resources for reaching nontrans people, I want to contribute to the strengthening of democratic resilience. First, in Canada. But also globally.
