Dr Kirstie Ken English (they/them)

Dr Kirstie Ken English (they/them)

Mixed methods researcher & quantitative methods Lecturer. My work focuses on the production and use of equality, diversity and inclusion(EDI) data, gender, sexuality and human rights.

2021 Events

Reframing census debates: Essential criteria for representing trans people:Beyond the binary variable conference: FemQuants

6th September 2021

The 2021/2022 UK censuses represent significant steps forward for the production of data on the LGBTQ+ population. However, this progress has been hampered by unprecedented controversy, linked to the UK’s climate of transphobia (Hines, 2020). Academics such as Sullivan (2020) claim to be resisting the conflation of sex and gender in data collection while promoting “legal sex” question guidance that if followed produces more ambiguous data. This paper argues that the conflation of sex and gender in the UKs censuses and other population surveys is not new and that the way to address this is by incorporating trans representative survey practices. Findings from reviewing current UK population survey practices will be utilised to highlight core limitations in how sex and gender are represented. The paper will then focus on how narrow conceptualisations of sex in the census have prevented the production of data on the size of the UKs non-binary population and needlessly distorted what could have been ground-breaking data on sex and gender. Potential solutions to these issues will be discussed based on preliminary findings from direct engagement with groups currently overlooked by the UK’s representation of sex and gender in surveys. Showing that representing trans people in data will not hinder our understanding of gender inequality has been one of the approaches adopted by trans inclusive researchers (Fugard, 2020). This paper aims to go further by showing that trans representative survey practices are essential for gaining an accurate understanding sex and gender.

Fugard, A. 2020. Should trans people be postmodernist in the streets but positivist in the spreadsheets? A reply to Sullivan. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 23, 525-531.

Hines, S. 2020. Counting the cost of difference: a reply to Sullivan. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 23, 533-538.

Sullivan, A. 2020. Sex and the census: why surveys should not conflate sex and gender identity. International Journal of Social ResearchMethodology, 23, 517-524.

Conducting Research with LGBTQ+ People: SGSSS

June 2021

A twice repeated 3 hour workshop for the SGSSS summer school

What will the census tell us?: Working with and representing LGBTQ+ people: University of Brighton’s Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender

24th February 2021

The workshop will be split into two, with the first half focusing on the 2021/2022 UK census representation of LGBTQ+ people. The second half will be dedicated to knowledge exchange on practical elements of engaging with LGBTQ+ people.