Debra Beight, a third-year PhD candidate in the Department of Bioethics and Medical Humanities, was awarded one of only seven non-EU positions for the 2025 Medical Humanities International PhD School at Durham University in the United Kingdom. The PhD School, hosted by the Institute for Medical Humanities in collaboration with the Centre for Medical Humanities and Bioethics at Linköping University in Sweden, brings together emerging scholars from across the globe whose work engages with interdisciplinary and critical approaches to health, illness and medicine.
This highly selective program focuses on the application of queer, trans and feminist theory in research involving marginalized populations. Participants will engage in workshops on activism as research practice and the ethics of working with vulnerable communities. The program fosters international collaboration among doctoral researchers committed to challenging normative structures in healthcare and creating new frameworks for understanding and supporting marginalized identities.
Beight’s research examines the medicalization of intersex bodies, specifically focusing on the long-term effects of childhood medical interventions on intersex adults. Her dissertation investigates how these early interventions influence individuals’ relationships with their own identities, embodied experiences, and interactions with healthcare systems. Her work applies a queer bioethical lens to issues of structural harm, medical authority and patient agency.
Throughout her academic career she has collaborated with U.S. intersex organizations and with international intersex and transgender health organizations in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Beight has presented her research at multiple conferences held by the European Professional Association for Transgender Health (EPATH) in Sweden, Italy, Ireland and Germany, and has produced educational workshops on intersex healthcare practices in both Sweden and the UK.
At Durham, she will present her preliminary dissertation proposal and contribute to discussions on the use of queer methodologies in health research. Her participation will strengthen international scholarly networks and bring greater visibility to the health inequities facing intersex and transgender communities.