Virtual Symposium 2023

PATHSA Virtual Symposium 2023

When: 25 November 2023 09:00-12:00, followed by PATHSA AGM 12:00-13:00

Where:  Zoom

Theme: Trials, Tribulations and Triumphs

CPD Points: Pending

Keynote Speaker: Ricki Kgositau

Ricki Kgositau’s background is International Human Rights Law Dispensation, Proliferation & Protection. She won a constitutional court case seeking legal gender recognition in the High Court of Botswana in 2017 and continues to use strategic impact litigation wins to make legislative and policy gains; hence founding the Ricki Kgositau Foundation in Botswana to advance legal and policy reform initiatives for the integration of and accountability towards gender diverse communities. Ms Kgositau is currently serving as the Africa Regional Manager for the Global Equality Caucus (GEC) whose work is to engage legislators and elected officials on advancing equality and inclusion for LGBTI persons.

Before joining the GEC, Ricki was the Co-Executive Director of the African Queer Youth Initiative (AQYI) being the only queer youth focused organisation on the African continent working to ensure LGBTI+ youth representation and participation. She is also the former Executive Director of Accountability International whose work is using research and data transparency to hold leaders accountable for international as well as continental human rights, health and developmental commitments. Before this, she was Executive Director of Gender DynamiX (GDX) being the first and oldest trans focused organisation in Africa and a stalwart in movement building; having co-founded the Southern Africa Trans Forum (SATF). She is also a 2016 Mandela-Washington Fellow under the flagship of the Obama administration’s YALI program (Young African Leaders Initiative) at the University of California – Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.

Ricki has authored various academic pieces advancing community-led monitoring and participatory action research as best models to achieve LGBTI research justice. She has in recent years been a columnist for The Botswana Gazette newspaper with a weekly column titled “Queer I” which she has used to advance queer experiences and challenge prevailing narratives around and about queer and gender diverse persons. Ricki also gives of her time to other NGOs such as the UNAIDS Global Reference Group on HIV & Human Rights, as Board Vice-Chair of the Botswana Trans Initiative (BTI) and the Advisory Board of the London School of Economics & Politics’ AHRC Research Project “Transnational Anti-Gender Movements and Resistance: Narratives and Interventions”. Ricki is also a part of the Connexional LGBTIQA+ Task Team in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) led by the office of the Presiding Bishop, aimed at transforming the church into a safe and inclusive place of worship for all diverse queer persons of faith. She is also answering her call into ministry with her affinity for queer theology, feminist theology, women’s liberation theology as well as an inclusive and decolonial Christian faith practices.

Following the presentations, the PATHSA Annual General Meeting will be the last item on the programme.

Timeline:

Presentation types

• Oral presentations (15 – 20 minutes)
• Traditional oral paper presentation
• Humanooks: making yourself (life history) available for a loan to individuals, groups or presentation to all symposium attendees
• Performance activity (e.g. creative performance, personal narration)
• Poster presentation (visual poster + 3 minute recording)

In drawing up your abstract, please align it as far as possible with the symposium theme. If you have done research - Great!

If you have not done research, we still want to hear what you are thinking and doing. For our 2022 Symposium, the best two papers were a description of experiences from a support space for educators, and a reflection on trans allyship.

Please submit your abstract to secretary@pathsa.org.za by 29 September 2023

Abstract proposal requirements

Maximum:  450 words

The abstract proposal should explain the topic of your presentation, describe why the research, practice, or policy is important to transgender health care in relation to the theme of the symposium.

For humanooks and performance activities provide a description, including type of activity, purpose, and target audience.

Other abstracts should include the following headings:

• Title
• Background
• Rationale
• Methodology/Design
• Evaluation
• Conclusion
• Indicate the preferred type of presentation
• • Oral presentation [specify traditional, humanook, performance activity]
  • Poster presentation

Presenter information

The following information should be submitted for the presenter(s):

• first and/or  last name
• qualification/designation
• affiliation
• e-mail address.

If your abstract is accepted, you will be asked to submit a brief (50 word) biographical statement that will be published as part of the symposium.

Review process

• Abstract proposals will be evaluated through peer review.
• Reviewer’s will evaluate:
• • clarity of content
  • quality
  • rigour
  • relationship to PATHSA’s symposium theme
• The abstract review committee reserves the right to make the final selection.