FHS assistant professor Travis Salway receives 2022 CUFA BC Early In Career Award

The Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC’s Early in Career Award recognizes outstanding contributions made by scholars at relatively early stages in their careers.

Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) assistant professor Travis Salway is being recognized for his work with and for Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (2S/LGBTQ) people. As a social epidemiologist, he investigates population health inequities in the context of stigma, including the ways we accurately sample and measure stigmatized populations.

Salway has closely worked with public health and community partners to study the scope, nature, and health effects of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts, also known as ‘conversion therapy’. This work - which documented the pervasiveness and harms of conversion therapy practices - was presented by Salway and his community research partners to a parliamentary committee in 2020. After consideration, the Canadian government unanimously passed an amendment to the Criminal Code to ban conversion therapy in Canada; the new law came into effect on January 7, 2022.

Salway co-founded and facilitates The 2S/LGBTQ+ Round Table, a community-based health research collaborative that brings together service providers, community organization staff & volunteers, researchers, and others interested in 2S/LGBTQ+ mental health needs. Recently, he worked with FHS PhD candidate Harlan Pruden, Nehiyô/First Nations Cree and Two-Spirit scholar, to co-launch the Two Spirit Dry Lab, Turtle Island’s first research lab that focuses exclusively on Two-Spirit people, communities and experiences.

“I am humbled and honoured by this award, which was enabled by the tireless work of my community partners—notably including ‘conversion therapy’ survivors, who have fought long and hard to get our governments to take action on the issue of ‘conversion therapy.’ CUFA BC’s endorsement of the value of this work heartens me and gives me hope that we can achieve health equity for future generations of 2S/LGBTQ people.” – Travis Salway

To learn more about Salway’s passion for research and teaching, watch the video interview below:

Note: The term Turtle Island harkens to some of the First Peoples’ creation stories (Anishnaabe, Lenepe, among others) and is used to name the land that we have come to call North America. Turtle Island may be used as well to reference this land mass, while not affirming or recognizing Canada or the United States of America.