Dr Claire Jenkins

Dr Claire Jenkins is a trans woman and convert to the Catholic Church. She was married with four children until in 1999 she transitioned from male to female at 50-years-old. Prior to this Claire was part of the leadership team in a secondary school. One of here many achievements at that school was to set up a vibrant PHSE department, a first for the school.  She was seconded from this role for 12 months to research sex education in Nottinghamshire schools to find out what resources and teacher training was required to deliver good quality sex education.  In 2013 she was awarded a PhD from the University of Sheffield for her research into the effect of transitioning on the family members of trans people. Subsequently she has advised several research projects and has spoken at many Catholic and secular university conferences. From 2017-23 she was actively involved in the pastoral care of LGBT Catholics where she coordinated a team (lay and ordained) who carried out this important work within her diocese. She also gives ongoing support to LGBT Muslim asylum seekers and refugees some of whom have become her close friends. Importantly she also belonged to a small working party who advised the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales about trans issues.  In May 2020 Claire was awarded a Senior Fellowship at Margaret Beaufort Institute, Cambridge where she is researching Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) young people’s experiences in schools.   This work has now been developed into a research project which will take place until 2025.  Currently she is working on publication of the research findings and organising an international conference to address gender ideology/theory within the Catholic Church.  She is uniquely placed as a senior trans woman and academic to enable trans people’s voices to be heard in both academia and education.

Previous book publications, or magazine/journal articles

• JENKINS, C. 2022. Paul is dead:  Supporting families where a member is transitioning from one sex gender to the other.  Academic.edu  https://www.academia.edu/90821570/Paul_is_dead_supporting_families_where_a_member_is_transitioning_from_one_sex_gender_to_the_other
• JENKINS, C. 2019a. Critique of Vatican document on Male and Female He created them. Academia.edu.
• JENKINS, C. 2019b. Male and female he created them? -a perspective on the transgender phenomenon for the Catholic church. Academia.edu.
• JENKINS, C. 2015. Blessings and Beatings – a tale of two transsexual women and the Christian church. Birkbeck College, University of London
• JENKINS, C. 2012. Straddling the scalpel of identity : a critical study of transsexual transition in a familial context. Doctor of Philosophy, Univerity of Sheffield.
• JENKINS, C. 2008. Straddling the scalpel of identity, my earliest memory. In: DEPALMA, R. & ATKINSON, E. (eds.) Invisible Boundaries. Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books.
• JENKINS, C. 2020. Loss and gain amid the fragility of life. The Tablet. London: The Tablet Publishing Company Ltd.
• JONES, D. A. & JENKINS, C. 2019. Faithfully Transgender. The Pastoral Review. London: The Tablet Publishing Co Ltd.
• (99+) Thriving of Transgender and Gender Non-binary (TGNB) children in Catholic education | Claire Jenkins – Academia.edu
• JENKINS, C. With publishers. The family and its disruption by transgender families: a study of the cases of Nigel and Beth – Christina and Kimberly. In: MARGARIA, A. & FENTON-GLYNN, C. (eds.) What is a family: transdisciplinary conversations. Universities of Zurich and Cambridge: Pending.
• JENKINS, C. to be confirmed. A transgender perspective on concerns about transgender and gender non-binary young people in Catholic schools. In: WHITTLE, S. & HENRY, S. (eds.) What is the reseaarch agenda for Catholic Education in relation to LGBTQ+ matters (provisional). Dublin: to be confirmed.
• Magazine article for Lyola University Chicago Gender Studies Group.

Experience in Schools

• Queen Elizabeth’s School, Mansfield, 11 years, school leadership team
• Dayncourt School, Nottinghamshire, 5 years, head of science faculty.
• Verdin School, Cheshire, 3 years, head of physics.
• Upper Rhondda Comprehensive School, 2 years, science teacher.

Voluntary Work

• Mentor to lead worker on Trans Children’s Centre of Excellence Leicester LGBT Centre, BBC Children in Need funded. (2016-18)
• Member of community violence against women and girls scrutiny panel East Midlands Crown Prosecution Service
• Member of TUC LGBT National Committee and Vice-chair National Union of Teachers LGBT Executive Working Party

Conferences

• Manchester Metropolitan University
• Sheffield University
• Westminster University
• World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Oslo Norway
• European Sociological Association Conference Lisbon
• Robert Gordon University
• Contributed to ITV1 documentary lead by 12 year old girl about living in an unusual family, (True North Productions)
• Designed and tutored workshops, using findings from my research, for: for 30 masters level psychotherapists at Porterbrook NHS Clinic Sheffield
• CIC Nottingham Community Counselling Service
• 20 post-graduate nurses at Nottingham University Hospitals
• A local support group for young (18-30 years) transgender people
• Trent DClinPsy, University of Lincoln November 2013
• University of Nottingham Master’s Counselling Students (2016)
• Invited speaker The transgender Experience and the Catholic Church – WAC (We are Church Ireland), Dublin October 18th 2018.