Sam Dolores Sanchinel

PhD Candidate

Email: sam.sanchinel@mail.utoronto.ca

Areas of Interest

• Trans Studies
• Continental Philosophy of Religion
• Latine Studies
• Pedagogy

Biography

Sam Dolores Sanchinel (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the Women and Gender Studies program. Her research focuses on trans identities, and their interactions with the ethics of Christian religious traditions, for a development of a Trans Latina theology. Her recently published work could be found in Feminist Review, Religion and Gender, and Theology & Sexuality.

She is also a Graduate Educational Developer at the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation/ Teaching Assistants’ Training Program. She’s been the course instructor for SDS381: Intro to Trans Studies, WGS271 Gender and Pop Culture, and in Fall 2024, WGS470 Politicizing Culture. Outside of academia she stays active with Newsgirls Boxing, swimming, Brazilian jiu jitsu, and her lovely dog Ziggy.

See full CV here.

Program: PhD 2019

Education

PhD Candidate (ABD) in Women and Gender Studies, University of Toronto

MA, York University: Humanities

B.A. Spec. Hons.: York University, Humanities

Dissertation

Title: Trans Prophecies: A Spiritual Reading of Trans Identity

Supervisor: Dina Georgis

In my doctoral research I aim to reconceptualize a Christian ethics of gender to outline how the trans embodiments could be read as prophetic.

My interrogation is rooted in trans-centric dialogue. In the criticism of the commonplace perspective of the Christian ethics of gender, I aim to use the same methodologies of autoethnography that the writers of trans-religious theory use and, in so doing, to develop a dialogue with the Bible. This dialogue would be rooted in my own positionality of being a trans Latina, who was raised in the Pentecostal church of Toronto and who has a tenuous relationship to Christianity. This dialogue is further grounded in the theoretical works of transgender academics, Latina theologians, and the works of continental philosophers of religion.

Presentations

Sanchinel, Sam Dolores (2025, Forthcoming) A Sermon on Sadness and Shame: Magical Realism, Critical Fabulation and Trans Latina Theology
MLA 2025: Visibility
New Orleans, USA

Sanchinel, Sam Dolores (2024, Forthcoming) Ladinos Babosos: Reading with LATAM Trans Femme Theologies
2nd International Trans Studies Conference
Northwestern University, Evanston

Sanchinel, Sam Dolores & S. Trimble (2024) “This used to be my playground”: Sports, Vulnerability, and Joy in the WGS Classroom
Workshop on Making Space for Play
University of Toronto, Canada

Sanchinel, Sam (2022) Land Acknowledgements and Trans Philosophy: What are we Compelled to Do? 
2022 Pacific Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association
Vancouver, British Columbia

Sanchinel, Sam (2021) La seducción/la singularidad universal del género: Una profecía posttranssexual
IV Congreso de Doctorandos en Filosofía
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Santiago (Online)

Selected Works

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Ashley, Florence and Sanchinel, Sam (2023) The Saint of Christopher Street: Marsha P. Johnson and the Social Life of a Heroine, Feminist Review, 134(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/01417789231166827

Sanchinel, Sam. (2022), The Godly “I Am” of Trans Identity, Religion and Gender, 13(1) https://doi.org/10.1163/18785417-tat00004

Sanchinel, Sam (2021) Tengo Sueño: a cross-generational Latinx dream of borders, religion, and trans identity, Theology & Sexuality, 27(2-3) https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2021.1908820

Blog Posts
Sanchinel, Sam (2022) Land Acknowledgements and Trans Philosophy: What are we Compelled to do?, Blog of the APA: Diversity and Inclusiveness. https://blog.apaonline.org/2022/08/18/land-acknowledgements-and-trans-philosophy-what-are-we-compelled-to-do/

Sanchinel, Sam (2022) A History on College Street: Learning from Oral History in Enunciating Latina and Trans Identities. LGBTQ Digital Collaboratory, https://lgbtqdigitalcollaboratory.org/a-history-on-college-street/

Forthcoming Peer-Reviewed Book Review
Sanchinel, Sam Dolores. Hijas de La Putisima: A Tran Femme Perspective on Juana María Rodríguez’s Puta Life. Graduate History Review (forthcoming 2023)

Honours and Awards