Heng (Simone) Wang 王恒 (they/she) is a PhD student in the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. Heng’s research interests are broadly constructed across trans and queer studies, transnational feminisms, sexual and reproductive ethics, and Sinophone studies.

I am a Han Chinese researcher and journalist. I am a first-generation settler, as well as the last of my own, living at UBC campus on the unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm lands. I was born and lived in Hangzhou, China before moving to Toronto for my Master’s degree in Women and Gender Studies and Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto. My research engages with trans studies, transnational feminisms, Sinophone studies, and sexual and reproductive ethics. With an interdisciplinary background in sociology, cinema studies, and gender studies, my research employs mixed methods including ethnography, archival study, and aesthetic critique. My work can be found in Journal of Homosexuality. The courses I have been assistant teaching include Introduction to Women and Gender Studies, Introduction to Social Justice, Asian Canadians in Popular Culture and Modern Standard Chinese.

I am committed to advancing the livelihood of 2SLGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities and promoting social justice in the global south. I was the chair and have been a researcher in the academic department of ColorsWorld, a student-led queer youth community, since 2020. I was a committee member of the 2SLGBTQ+ Student Mental Health Advisory Committee at the University of Toronto.

I became a film journalist in 2019. I have covered the Toronto International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival yearly for World Screen, one of the most influential and widely circulated film journals in China. I was accepted into the TIFF 2023 Media Inclusion Initiative and the SFF 2024 Press Inclusion Initiative, both with media accreditation and a stipend.

Personal Website: https://www.hengwang.work/

My current research examines sexual and reproductive ethics through the lens of trans of color critique. My other projects are community-based, mainly focusing on the queer youth activism in the People’s Republic of China.

– “Gender and Sexuality Disparities in Perception, Attitude and Social Intimacy among Sinophone Youth towards Transgender and Gender Non-conforming Individuals: Based on an Internet Survey.” Journal of Homosexuality, (2024): 1-22. With Xiyuan Hu. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2023.2287031
– “Sociological Meaning of the ‘Qualification Right’ to Homestead.” Journal of University of Jinan, (2021): 5–11. With Feizhou Zhou and Shang Lin. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1671-3842.2021.04.002

Four Year Doctoral Fellowship, University of British Columbia (2024-2028)
President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, University of British Columbia (2024-2028)
Jack Hallam Uc’52 Graduate Scholarship, University of Toronto (2024)
David Rayside Graduate Students Award, University of Toronto (2023)
Conference Travel Grant, University of Toronto (2023)
University of Toronto Fellowship, University of Toronto (2022-2023)
SGS Conference Grant, University of Toronto (2022)
Hammed Shahidian Graduate Award in Women and Gender Studies, University of Toronto (2022)
Women and Gender Studies Admission Award, University of Toronto (2022)
Excellent Undergraduate Dissertation, Beijing Municipal Education Commission (2022)
Excellent Graduate, Peking University and Beijing Municipal Education Commission (2022)
May 4th Scholarship, Peking University (2021)
Merit Student Pacesetter, Peking University (2021)
Exceptional Award for Academic Innovation, Peking University (2021)
The First Prize of Peking University Scholarship, Peking University (2020)
Excellent Student Leader, Peking University (2020)
Samsung Scholarship, Peking University (2019)
Merit Student, Peking University (2019)

Presenter
– “Tranny Trickery: Rethinking Sexual Consent Through Trans-Intersex Corporeality”. 2nd International Trans Studies Conference. Evanston, Illinois, 2024 September.
– “Trans*itional Justice Undone: Suku, Storytelling and the Cultural Practices of Trans Elders in Postsocialist China”. 2nd International Trans Studies Conference. Evanston, Illinois, 2024 September.
– “Transnational Circulation of Transphobia and the Mobilization of Vulnerability Among Chinese Trans-exclusionary Feminists on Social Media”. 2nd International Trans Studies Conference. Evanston, Illinois, 2024 September.
– “Queering Boundaries Through Passing: Embodied Practices and Gender Identity of Trans Students in China”. 119th American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Montréal, Québec, 2024 August.
– “Spontaneity, Decentralization and Loose Solidarity of Queer Activism in Contemporary China”. 119th American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Montréal, Québec, 2024 August.
– “Designing Gender-inclusive Learning Materials for Chinese as a Foreign Language Classrooms”. 2nd Annual Gender-Inclusive Language Conference. Online, 2024 April.
– “Antinatalist Feminism, Necrotrans Haunting, and the Afterlife of the One-child Nation”. Association for Asian Studies 2024 Annual Conference. Online, 2024 March.
– “Trans Autobiography and Neoliberal Politics of (In)Visibility in Postsocialist China”. 2023 National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference. Baltimore, Maryland, 2023 October.
– “Sex and Gender Disparities in Perception, Attitude and Social Intimacy among Sinophone Youth towards Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Individuals: Based on an Internet Survey”. The Population Association of America 2023 Annual Meeting. New Orleans, Louisiana, 2023 April.
– “The Skin I Inhabit: Gender Identity and Embodied Practices of Trans Students in China”. Annual Conference of the Chinese Sociological Association. Chongqing, China, 2021 July.

Panel Organizer
– “Mapping Transgender Survival and Transfeminism in Contemporary China”. Association for Asian Studies 2024 Annual Conference. Online, 2024 March.
– “Trans*ing Chineseness: Authenticity, Mobility, and Nationalism in 21st-century China”. 2023 National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference. Baltimore, Maryland, 2023 October.

Chair
– Sex & Gender Roundtable: Gender Politics. 119th American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Montréal, Québec, 2024 August.

Invited Talk
– “Ruins of Memorial: Diasporic Thinking of the Departed Chinese Trans on Transgender Day of Remembrance”. Toronto Public Library, 2023 November. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz4vRActKHd/?igsh=MW4ydDZrNTN3ZDF4bA==
– “Trans / Queer / Feminism”. The Podcast Zhi De Biao Yang. Online, 2023 February. https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Cx9Qd7owJVPEULS6n28Fn
– “The Way of Passing: Transness, Gender Nonconformity and the Boundaries of Identity”. The 2nd Qingyan Queer Studies Conference. Online, 2022 November. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/OiwwWeXUidOpUy5Ms-672w