Stories of Pride in Higher Education: Elliott Spaeth
Hi, I'm Elliott.
I'm a lecturer here at Glasgow Uni, and my job is a particularly relevant one for Pride month: helping other lecturers teach inclusively. I'm here to talk about my identity as a trans guy (on the asexual spectrum), and how that relates to Higher Education.
It took me until my early twenties to realise I was romantically interested in women, and until I was in my thirties to realise I was on the asexual spectrum and that I identified as a trans man. Looking back, there were clues leading back to my childhood that I was trans, and I've been actively thinking about this part of my identity for a decade now. But I still couldn't see it clearly until recently.
Sometimes, life can condition us to believe that we have to be a certain person, or act a certain way, to be accepted. And that conditioning can make it hard to know who you really are inside. It's taken a lot of therapy and work for me to be comfortable enough being my authentic self, and to not just play a role to make others happy. That work was necessary for me to be able to embrace my identity as a trans man.
But how does that relate to Higher Education? To me, university should be a place where everyone can be their authentic selves. Being at university, whether online or in person, can be a time when you are around many people who are different to you. This is a real gift, and can help you figure out who you really are. I didn't know any trans men growing up - all I knew was that being trans was something that would make a lot of people upset with me.
When I ask other lecturers what they think it is most important for their students to learn, they almost always say "critical thinking skills". This means the ability to not accept everything at face value; to evaluate evidence and think about things in a way that is aligned with that evidence, rather than doing something because it's always been done that way.
I'd love to hear what you come up with. Let me know what you think on Twitter at @ElliottSpaeth. My account is currently protected but you can send a follow request if you'd like to.
Written by Dr Elliott Spaeth