My dissertation examines how biologists drew on binary gender norms to structure their investigation of sexual reproduction as a mechanism for producing genetic variation between the 1880s and 1950s. Developments in German cytology and US genetics led to the establishment of heredity as an object of biological investigation, as biologists speculated on the purpose of the evolution of sex from a primordial state of asexual reproduction. By the 1930s, the evolutionary synthesis saw a widespread acceptance of Mendelian inheritance and the assumption that sexual reproduction evolved because it was superior at producing genetic variation. I argue that such a conception of variation, modeled on genetics and binary sexuality, served as a cisheteronormative foundation for institutionalizing diversity as a boon rather than a detriment.

I am also an admin of Trans PhD Network, a Facebook networking and support group for trans people pursuing graduate work.