Marty Fink defines a more inclusive future for critical thought through Trans Studies

Professional Communication Professor, Marty Fink (opens in new window) , receives the President's Award for Teaching Excellence (opens in new window)  for their work on defining a new, more inclusive future for teaching and learning. The award recognized Fink’s care and thoughtfulness in developing the course CMN230: Trans Studies and Communication (opens in new window)  and their commitment to advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion at the university.

Bringing Trans Studies to the university at large

Fink, who is trans and uses they/them pronouns, says the work they do as a teacher feels “deeply personal and also widely impactful.” They share their excitement for being recognized with an award in such a public and cumulative way. “It feels really encouraging and makes me think about other ways I can bring trans studies across the larger curriculum,” they say. 

The President’s Award for Teaching Excellence is a recognition of Fink’s dedication to their students and celebrates how their course has created a much-needed space for students outside the heteronormative to gain insights into issues they may not have understood in a safe, respectful space. 

Fink shares that when they created the course ‘Trans Studies and Communication’, it felt very important to make it available to all students, regardless of faculty or area of study. “I felt that students could bring trans studies into their disciplines in really interesting ways and I also imagined that trans studies could have an impact on all fields students were learning from,” they share. 

One of the amazing outcomes of the course, says Fink, has been witnessing how class materials are being shaped by different conversations. Those taking place in disciplines like midwifery, fashion, and early childhood education, for example, have created exciting outcomes both in Fink’s classroom and on the ground.

Working through discomfort and stigma

Fink believes an intersectional course like theirs with students from across diverse areas of study “can really shape how people bring trans media into all kinds of activism, artistic, and scholarly work.”

What excites Fink most about teaching is seeing the proof that education really works. “Students can approach something that feels heavy, or personal, or even deeply uncomfortable like topics on gender-based violence, sex positivity, or white supremacy,” they say, “and the classroom can be a place for thinking differently about gender, accessibility, and body self-determination.”

Fink says that working through discomfort and stigma in meaningful ways such as together in the classroom through writing and in spaces that mean something to students and their communities, can build the world we want to see – and not just in an abstract, future sense. “I love this work, and I am really happy the feedback has been so celebratory and encouraging!”

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Marty Fink is an Associate Professor in Professional Communication with a focus on queer and trans studies. Their research and teaching investigates archival media, zines, and novels toward supporting Black Lives Matter, HIV activism, and prison abolition. They work in collaboration with community organizations including Montreal's Prisoner Correspondence Project  (external link, opens in new window) on harm reduction, body self-determination, and defunding the police.

Marty Fink is the author of Forget Burial: HIV Kinship, Disability, and Queer/Trans Narratives of Care (external link, opens in new window)  (Rutgers University Press)

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