SENS Project Aims
Interdisciplinary & norm-critical
To bring interdisciplinary and norm-critical social science perspectives to bear on the thinking that underpins clinical interventions with children and young people whose sex development diverges from binary norms.
Psycho-social
To explore the role that psychology and psychologists play (or could play) in multi-disciplinary teams specializing in intersex/DSD.
Conceptual
To explore ways of understanding intersex and diversity of sex development, and to consider alternative (non-medical) framings that prioritise psycho-social well-being rather than foregrounding medical understandings.
European
To examine contemporary British and Scandinavian understandings and experiences in relation to the health care of children and young people with diverse sex development.
Diverse perspectives & individual experiences
To examine how clinical interventions on sex development and sexed appearance are understood and experienced from the various points of view of the clinicians, the parents, and the young people centrally involved in these interventions. To think critically about the different ways each of these parties might be making sense of the same interventions, and to examine the implications of those different sense-making processes.