Ruth Pearce is a queer activist, music promoter, DJ, punk musician and postgraduate researcher based in the Sociology Department at the University of Warwick. Her PhD thesis, provisionally entitled ‘Discursive Negotiation: Trans healthcare provision in the United Kingdom’ will be submitted for examination this summer. In this work, Ruth will draw upon qualitative fieldwork undertaken online from 2010 to 2015 to explore how transgender health is differently understood within community spaces, activist groups and the professional sphere, as well as how these understandings have shifted and changed over time. 

When not glued to a computer theorising discourse, Ruth can most commonly be found running DIY events or playing with her bands. Recent projects include Coventry-based riot grrrl club night Revolt, trans feminist punk groups Not Right and Dispute Settlement Mechanism, and the doom metal band Abandoned Life. 

Photograph: Marta Kochanek, originally taken for the ‘Queer’ists’ project.