College Students organize a voice care workshop to transfeminists

(Santiago, September 6, 2019).- A group of speech-language pathology students of the Universidad Autónoma de Chile, who are working on their thesis and collaborating with the OTD Chile Investigation Unit, did a voice care workshop along with a transfeminists group in a store called “Tienda Purga” located in Recoleta.

The idea of the workshop is to create a moment of mutual education where the transfeminists teach to students and teachers about their experience with their voice and speech and hearing care, to break down prejudices.

After the activity, this group of 4th year speech-language pathology students with their teachers, talked about the processes of management and modification of the voice, and about good practices of voice health.  Also, they resolved doubts and talked about the myths carried out concerning to voice feminization.

These instances allowed to break down the extractivist logic of the academy of the research, managing an exchange and legitimation of positions and experiences. This group of college students and teachers wants to repeat this workshop voluntarily and for free 4 times per year, and the Investigation Unit would like to do more workshops in order to convene non-binary people and transmasculine people as well.

We call upon more students who are working on their thesis and students in general, to join and collaborate equally to the communities they write about, taking charge of their necessities to create a link beyond the research and bibliography.

The Investigation Unit thanks the collaboration of Ari Matus, who has actively helped to create new spaces for the community, and thanks to all the transfeminists that has brought their ideas and the will to have a place in OTD Chile.

The college students who carried out this research are Verónica Medina, Nicolle Lagos, Juan Montesino, Daniela Peña and the teachers are Cristobal Riquelme and Sebastian Guajardo.