My scholarly interests are wide-ranging, including gender, disability, identity and belonging, education, medicalization, and culture. The core of my scholarship is to question how knowledge about marginalized groups is produced and how it is sustained and used by our social institutions.
My dissertation research explores the interaction-level barriers that autistic transgender people face when trying to access gender-affirming medical interventions (e.g. HRT, top/bottom surgery, facial/neck surgeries). I am interested in exploring how the medical model of autism affects how autistic people interact with the medical system.
I have been talking to autistic transgender individuals who’ve struggled to access gender-affirming treatments. I am also interviewing medical and mental health providers about their work with autistic transgender people, to understand how their perspectives and training influence how they work with autistic trans people.
I am currently in the recruitment and data collection stage of this project.
If you are a therapist or doctor and would like to speak to me about your work with autistic transgender people, please email me (nrios[AT]gradcenter.cuny.edu).
If you are an autistic transgender person who has struggled to obtain gender-affirming treatments, and would like to speak to me, please fill out this form.