“I actually don’t have training in English,” Gill-Peterson admits with a laugh. Although he recently joined the English department as an Assistant Professor of English and Children's Literature, he didn’t begin as an English major. He received his BA in History from the University of Ottawa. It was with guidance from his university advisors that Gill-Peterson applied outside of Canada to American universities, where he could access more resources to pursue his PhD and study his main interest: the transgender child.
Gill-Peterson moved to New York City from Canada. But he says that it wasn’t too big of a transition, since he used to live next to the border—“We watched the same TV channels.” He recalls reading on the subway for the hour-long commutes to his classes at Rutgers University-Newark, where he graduated in 2015. His graduate program was in American Studies, which is a more theoretical field than that of an ordinary history degree since it leaves room to study literature and culture. His dissertation, Queer Theory Is Kid Stuff, studied the rising visibility of gay and transgender children in the United States during the 20th and early 21st centuries. The dissertation focused on bullying in school and online to track the emergence of self-identified gay children in relation to law, school, and juvenile delinquency; it also examined endocrinology and early gender clinics that contributed to the medicalization of the transgender child.
Gill-Peterson’s current research involves further investigation of the transgender child. Transgender children are a marginalized group in today’s society; barely any books featuring transgender children are available, and virtually none exist from the past because the term “transgender” is fairly new. As a continuation of his dissertation, Gill-Peterson seeks more information about transgender history through archival research. He hopes to compile this research into his untitled work-in-progress, a scholarly book about the transgender child.
So far, his research has mostly focused on the history of the transgender child in the context of science and medicine. Endocrinology, the study of hormones, is one of the main focuses because of its common involvement in diagnosis and treatment; it reveals the disconnect between the sex and gender. “I wanted to go where I thought the answer would be, and the one that came to me naturally was science and medicine,” he explains. Gill-Peterson approaches science both historically and conceptually, looking at its material and political effects on the body. The main focus isn’t on the mechanics of the science but, rather, on the history of the ideas.
After completing his PhD, Gill-Peterson applied to jobs at universities in the United States and Canada, which brought him to Pittsburgh. What he admits drew him to Pitt is the Children’s Literature program, which is valuable to him since not all professors are able to teach what they research. Pitt has given him the opportunity to teach about topics related to his research, such as child and adolescent representation in young adult literature.
This past fall, Gill-Peterson taught a class called Child Sciences for the Children’s Literature certificate capstone course. Child Sciences examined the history of science in relation to children’s literature, introducing the different ways science thinks about what a child is biologically and medically. This class mirrored his range of interests, which branch to queer theory, American Studies, science and medicine, and young adult literature. Gill-Peterson hopes not only to bring a more scientific approach to examining the way young characters behave in literature, but also to intermingle English and other disciplines in the classroom. He wants to expose his students to subjects they otherwise might have not considered.
In his Child Sciences course, his students examined the different ways young characters are viewed through literary, fictional, and scientific lenses. They studied the idea that children in particular are “closest to nature of all humans.” That is, they haven’t had enough experience yet to be molded by the world, so have the potential to be many things. They are viewed as “more natural, more alive, and more vital,” which is a concept often toyed with in young adult literature. “We don’t appreciate how unique children are. We all suffer from this kind of amnesia about childhood, even though all of us adults were kids at one time,” Gill-Peterson explains. “We have a lot to understand and learn from them.”
His current goals include researching for his book, getting to know his students better, and learning more about the Children’s Literature certificate. Gill-Peterson views Pitt as especially willing to foster the independent research of its students, and he is fully supportive of that. He wants to shift his teaching according to what his students want; he asks them, “Well, what are you interested in?”
Gill-Peterson plans to do this by taking students to the University Library System’s Special Collections department and letting them leaf through the archives, which is similar to how he goes about his own work. Allowing them do their own research, this assignment helps students learn how to find information effectively and discover what interests them. Even if their specialization doesn’t lie in literature or writing, he encourages students to discover and take advantage of what an English and Children’s Literature perspective can add to their home major.
“Be always willing to follow your gut,” he suggests, “and follow what makes you excited.”
—Jessica Reyes
Jessica Reyes is a junior English Writing (Fiction) major who is also pursuing both a Computer Science and a Japanese minor, as well as a Children’s Literature certificate. She is a T5F writing intern this spring.