Transgender Media Lab Handbook

A Living Manual of Our Values, Guidelines, and Protocols

Version 1.0. Last Updated May 13 2022

Written by Evie Ruddy & the Transgender Media Lab

Acknowledgements: Edited by Kate Higginson. Layout by Kit Chokly. Thank you to Laura Horak, Kate Higginson, Cara Tierney, and Connie Crompton for contributing ideas, and participating in conversations about this handbook.

This living document was created in 2021 and last updated on 13 May 2022.

This handbook is inspired by and draws on the structure of the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR) Lab Book.^[1]

How to cite this document: Evie Ruddy and the Transgender Media Lab, “Transgender Media Lab Handbook: A Living Manual of Our Values, Guidelines, and Protocols” (Ottawa, ON: Transgender Media Lab, Carleton University, 2022).

Table of Contents

1. Transgender Media Lab Statement of Values

1.2. Introduction

2. Glossary of Terms

3. Rules & Guidelines

3.1. TML Rules

3.2. TML Guidelines

3.2.1. Attend all TML meetings

3.2.2. Remain in good standing

3.2.3. Log your hours

3.2.4. Practice an ethics of care: care for yourself and others in the lab

3.2.5. Resolve small conflicts before they become big

3.2.6. Acknowledge the land you are on

3.2.7. Acknowledge the TML and your colleagues

3.2. 8. Let us know if you’re going to leave the TML

4. Protocols

4.1. Hiring Equity

4.2. Accessibility

4.3. Onboarding Research Assistants (RAs)

4.4. Exiting the Lab

4.5. Annual Team Member Survey

4.6. Affiliated Lab Members

4.7. Volunteers

4.8. Partnerships/Collaborations

4.9. Paying Research Participants/Collaborators

4.10. Conflict Resolution

4.10.1. How to call someone in

4.10.2. How to apologize

4.10.3. What to do if you’ve been called in

4.10.4. If an RA has an issue with a supervisor

4.10.5. If a supervisor has an issue with an RA

4.10.6. If an RA has an issue with another RA

4.11. Being in Good Relations with the Territory the Lab is on

4.12. How to Run a Meeting

4.13. TML Office Space

4.14. Shared Documents

4.15. TMP Data Entry

4.16. Amending the Handbook

5. Bibliography

1. Transgender Media Lab Statement of Values

1.2. Introduction

The first iteration of this handbook was written on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Nation and on Treaty 4 lands — the territories of the Cree, Saulteaux, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakoda peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. We acknowledge that the Transgender Media Lab’s home institution, Carleton University, has benefitted and continues to benefit from generations of theft of land and resources, and we undertake to understand the obligations that this multi-generational transfer creates for us.

The Transgender Media Lab (TML) was founded by Dr. Laura Horak in 2020 to create an institutional home for students recruited to Carleton to research trans media-making and build the Transgender Media Portal (TMP), a website and database of trans filmmakers and their works. The TMP’s goals are to: promote the careers of today’s trans filmmakers, call attention to older works so they can be programmed and preserved, jumpstart research on these films, and provide artists and others with access to an innovative tradition of work.

The TML handbook is inspired by the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR) Lab Book.^[2] Following CLEAR’s lead, TML team members will participate in a collaborative process in fall 2021 to establish our values. These values will inform how we engage in the lab’s work, including how we make decisions about the TMP, run meetings, interact with one another, and resolve conflict.

This handbook is a living document, which means that it is continually evolving as we welcome new members, learn about better, more equitable ways of doing the lab’s work, and engage in critical self-reflection. We are committed to creating a lab that is fair, transparent, effective, fun, and in line with trans, antiracist, anti-colonial, feminist, queer, and crip values.

The TML’s core values are: [TBA Fall 2022].

In Winter 2022, TML members participated in a values-defining workshop to determine the core values of the lab. We are currently in the process of collectively deciding what these values will be and will add them to the handbook in fall 2022.

2. Glossary of Terms

TBD

3. Rules & Guidelines

3.1. TML Rules

To date, the TML has only one rule, which is the same as CLEAR Lab’s number 1 rule:

If you are sick, heartbroken, or exhausted, go home [or log off]. This job is not more important than your well being.^[3]

3.2. TML Guidelines

3.2.1. Attend all TML meetings

Our team meetings are how we build community in the lab. At TML meetings, we check in with one another and make important decisions about the lab’s work. These decisions, and the processes that we undertake at meetings, are informed by the values that we collectively establish. At our team meetings, we put our values into practice as we discuss the day-to-day operations of the lab, potential collaborations and partnerships, suggested revisions to our protocols and guidelines, and various lab-related projects.

Although lab members are expected to attend all TML meetings, we understand that sometimes you may need to miss a meeting. In these instances, we ask that you send an email to Laura and the person running that week’s meeting to let them know in advance that you can’t make it.

3.2.2. Remain in good standing

As a Lab Research Assistant (RA), you are expected to remain “in good standing” in order for your contract to be renewed. To remain in good standing, you must:

• Pass your courses
• Make progress toward your degree (as defined by your home department)
• Complete assigned lab tasks in a timely manner
• Log your hours regularly and accurately (see Guideline 3)
• Maintain regular communication with your supervisor
• Abide by the protocols outlined in this handbook

In order to support RAs to remain in good standing, and for RAs to provide Laura and Connie with feedback, two-way reviews with the RA’s primary supervisor (Laura or Connie Crompton) will be scheduled three months after the RA position begins (typically in December) and at the end of the second semester (typically in April). The purpose of these reviews is to find out how the RAship is going, discuss any issues that need to be addressed, evaluate how the tasks are fitting with the RA’s professional goals, and for the RAs to provide feedback to their supervisor, etc.

Yearly RA contracts that begin in the fall semester are typically up for renewal in April. RAs will be notified about their standing and whether or not their contract will be renewed within two weeks after the second review in April. If an RA fails to remain in good standing, their contract can be ended with 2 week’s notice.

3.2.3. Log your hours

Once you join the team as an RA, we will create a Planio account for you to keep track of your assigned tasks and log your hours. Keep your Planio task tickets up to date with the amount of time you have worked on each task (rounded to the nearest quarter hour).

During the period of your contract with the TML, you will be paid every two weeks on the Carleton pay dates, with the exception of your first payment, which is typically issued approximately one month after your start date. There is no need to submit your hours for approval. Project manager Kate Higginson will have access to your logged hours on Planio and will regularly review them to make sure that your hours are being recorded. Please ensure that your Planio tickets are always up to date.

3.2.4. Practice an ethics of care: care for yourself and others in the lab

Martina Angela Caretta of the Hydro-Feminist lab at West Virginia University and Caroline V. Faria of the Feminist Geography Collective at University of Texas at Austin advocate for slow scholarship and an ethics of care within an increasingly neoliberal academy.^[4] For Caretta and Faria, taking time and care in the lab and in their fieldwork involves: engaging in slow, transformative mentorship within an anti-racist, social justice, feminist framework; challenging institutional hierarchies by fostering space for peers to support one another and build meaningful friendships; engaging in regular check-ins on everyday ups and downs; creating space that prioritizes openness, informality, and shared responsibility; and cultivating a collaborative environment as opposed to one that fosters competition.

We strive to create a similar environment. When new members join the lab, we welcome, support, and mentor them. If you notice a lab member is struggling, please check in with them and offer support if you’re able to. We collaborate, help each other out, provide feedback on one another’s work, make space for lab members to express their ideas, establish shared values, recognize one another’s accomplishments, and carve out time for social activities.

It is also important to care for yourself: communicate your needs, set boundaries, take breaks when needed, and have fun. CLEAR reminds us that part of “supportive openness” is “keeping humour, fun, and personality alive and part of the lab work.”^[5]

3.2.5. Resolve small conflicts before they become big

As CLEAR suggests, one of the ways in which we care for ourselves and one another is through conflict resolution.^[6] It is important that if you have an issue with a lab rule, protocol, guideline, process, lab member, or something someone said that you communicate the issue so that it can be addressed early on. CLEAR suggests that members voice their concerns as such: “I notice that X. Its effect on me is Y. How can we work on that?”^[7]

The goal is to deal with the conflict head on while striving “to move forward together.”^[8] For more detailed guidelines on how to resolve conflict, see the protocol for “conflict resolution” below.

3.2.6. Acknowledge the land you are on

When you give presentations on behalf of the TML or write TML- or TMP-related papers, please always include a territory acknowledgement. The TML typically uses the following land acknowledgement:

The Transgender Media Lab is located on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Nation. We acknowledge that the TML’s home institution, Carleton University, has benefitted and continues to benefit from generations of theft of land and resources, and we undertake to understand the obligations that this multi-generational transfer creates for us.

We encourage you to personalize this land acknowledgement and tailor it to the circumstances in which you are presenting.  

3.2.7. Acknowledge the TML and your colleagues

When you give presentations on behalf of the TML or write TML- or TMP-related papers, please always include a slide or section acknowledging the TML, project funders, and people who contributed to the project.    

3.2. 8. Let us know if you’re going to leave the TML

We understand that sometimes life can become overwhelming and you may need to leave the lab unexpectedly, either for a short time or permanently. That’s okay. We will respect your decision and support you. Please be sure to let Laura know that you will be leaving so that we can assign your work to other lab members and follow the protocols for when a member exits the lab (e.g. scheduling an exit interview, returning keys, etc.)

4. Protocols

4.1. Hiring Equity

We acknowledge the ways that colonialism, anti-Blackness, ableism, cis-centrism, transmisogyny, and homophobia structure the distribution of power, capital, and opportunities in so-called Canada and at Carleton University. We are committed to hiring QTBIPOC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, people of colour) and disabled students and staff to work at the Transgender Media Lab.

We also commit to paying good wages that are in line with union standards. Because Carleton University does not have a union-negotiated RA wage for students and staff hired through research grants, we generally set our wage scale based on the TA wages of Carleton’s CUPE 4600 Unit 1 and the University of Ottawa’s CUPE 2626 Unit.

To enact this commitment, we take the following steps when hiring for TML and TMP positions:

• We encourage QTBIPOC and disabled candidates to apply in our job ads
• We prioritize QTBIPOC and disabled candidates when making hiring decisions
• We specifically send our job ads to:

• QTBIPOC and disabled organizations, including the Black Studies Association of Canada, the Native American Art Studies Association and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association
• QTBIPOC and disabled leaders and community organizations in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal
• Relevant departments at historically Black Colleges and Universities
• QTBIPOC and disabled student groups at Carleton, University of Ottawa, and Algonquin College, including Black Student Alliance at Carleton, African Students’ Association of Carleton, Centre for Indigenous Initiatives, Ojigkwanong and Mawandoseg Centre, and the Carleton Disability Awareness Centre
• Advisory Board members, with a request to share the ad with their networks

4.2. Accessibility

Our team is committed to making the lab and the work of the TML accessible to artists, activists, festival programmers, researchers, instructors, community members, and the general public. We are also committed to disability justice. In spring 2022, we formed a working group on disability justice and have begun working through “Disability Justice: An Audit Tool” written by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. The following protocols will be amended as we continue to do an internal audit of the TML.

In the lab, we will:

• Ensure that TML meeting spaces and public events are accessible to people with mobility impairments and that accessible, gender-inclusive washrooms are available. We will include this information in our promotional materials.
• Include within our TML Team Member Survey questions to determine people’s accessibility needs and, if necessary, further develop a formal plan to accommodate our team members’ needs.^[9]
• Follow CLEAR’s lead in applying a team member’s accessibility needs to every lab member, and embedding them into lab protocols.^[10] For example, all team members participate in pronoun circles regardless of gender, or if one person needs a scent-free meeting space, we create a scent-free protocol for all TML meeting spaces, and so on.

For TML events, we will:

• Check the poster design using a colour contrast accessibility check such as WebAIM’s Color Contrast Checker or WCAG Contrast Checker and a colourblindness accessibility check such as the Coblis Color Blindness Simulator or the Colorblindness Palette Creator
• Offer sign language interpretation of public events. Include the following statement in our event promotions:

• “Please contact the Transgender Media Lab at transgendermediaportal@gmail.com ideally by [date, 2–3 weeks in advance of event] and at the very least one week in advance, to request interpretation services for this event.”

• Provide live transcripts at public online events and captions for tutorial and promotional videos
• Read our anti-harassment statement aloud at the beginning of all public events and include it in the chat for our online events
• Ensure that our events are free to attend or by donation
• As is appropriate to the event, begin TML events with a land acknowledgement

For lab outputs, we will:

• Ensure they meet accessibility standards. For example, presentations should adhere to these guidelines from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative and our websites should adhere to W3C standards.
• Minimize academic jargon when communicating with the public (e.g., on the TMP website, in surveys, when interviewing research participants, etc.). Although the TML is located within an academic institution, we strive to use language that is accessible to everyday community members.
• Test all tools created by the TML, including the TMP database, for accessibility for people with disabilities.
• Continually ask ourselves questions about the accessibility of the lab, as Maya Livio and Lori Emerson suggest, to ensure that the lab space and our outputs are accessible.^[11] 

4.3. Onboarding Research Assistants (RAs)

Existing team members will explain and help new TML Research Assistants with the following onboarding steps:

• Send us a short bio and headshot for the TML and TMP websites (optional)
• Send us your email address(es) for email correspondence, Google Tools, Planio and/or other project management tools
• Sign the RA contract
• Fill out Human Resources paperwork (via Kate for Carleton students and Connie for University of Ottawa students)
• Fill out annual team member survey
• Subscribe to shared Google folder, Planio and/or other project management tools
• Sign up for the TMP email list and follow our social media accounts: @TransMediaPortl (Facebook, Twitter & Instagram)
• Learn how to log hours
• For students on-site at Carleton: get a key to the project office (once campus opens up again post-COVID)
• Read Lab Handbook (this document) and Project Charter (write down any questions)
• Sign the TMP Project Charter
• Read the TML and TMP websites
• Read the items in the introductory reading package:

• Excerpts from the SSHRC Insight grant proposal “Trans Mediascapes” (2020-2025)
• Chokly, Kit, Jay Cooper, Oliver Debney, and Laura Horak. “Usability Test Report 2020.” Ottawa: Transgender Media Portal, Carleton University, June 22, 2020. https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:30641/
• Horak, Laura. “Tracing the History of Trans and Gender Variant Filmmakers.” Spectator: The University of Southern California Journal of Film & Television 37, no. 2 (2017):  9–20. https://cinema.usc.edu/spectator/37.2/2_Horak.pdf
• Ruddy, Evie, and Laura Horak. “Orienting Toward Social Justice: Trans, Anti-Racist, Anti-Colonial, Feminist, Queer, and Crip Approaches to Ethical Practices in the Digital Humanities.” Paper presented at the Canadian Society for Digital Humanities Conference, online, June 2, 2021.

• Start a schedule of tasks and establish set hours for the semester—what will you work on, and when?

4.4. Exiting the Lab

• Participate in a round robin at a TML meeting where everyone shares what we valued about your work with us^[12]
• Make sure you transfer your knowledge of the project and your work to the team in some form
• Exit interview

• You will be offered one of three options for your exit interview:

1. provide us with written feedback
2. have an in-person meeting with one or more members of the TML, or
3. have an in-person meeting with an external party

• How was your overall experience working in the lab?
• How did your fellow lab members make you feel / how did you feel in the lab environment?
• What is the most valuable thing you learned? What else did you learn?
• How do you think your work/experience in the lab could have been different?

1. What would you like to learn that you didn’t get to?

• Would you like to come back to work in the lab?

1. If so, what would you choose to work on?

• Is there anything else about your experiences that you would like to share?^[13]

• Return your office key
• We will remove your electronic access to shared Google folder, TMP, Planio, and other project tools

4.5. Annual Team Member Survey

This survey will be distributed to every team member each August/September

4.6. Affiliated Lab Members

Affiliated lab members help create a community of thinkers at the intersections of cinema and media studies and trans studies. They agree to participate in lab events (e.g. incubators, screenings, trans reading group, etc.) and provide informal mentorship to other members of the lab. Many events are online so affiliated members don’t need to be in Ottawa.

We are interested in affiliates who are doing work centered in transgender studies, that is, work that centers the expertise and expressed needs of trans people, with trans people in leadership positions. We are most interested in affiliates whose research overlaps with the current research interests of core lab members. We will prioritize QTBIPOC and disabled scholars who apply for affiliation.

To become an affiliated lab member:

• Email Laura and explain your research interests and why you would like to be a member: LauraHorak@cunet.carleton.ca
• Read the TML Handbook (this document) and agree to abide by the rules, guidelines, and protocols
• Agree to attend TML events and, if you’re a faculty member, be available for one-on-one consultations.

Once you’ve been accepted:

• Send us a bio and headshot for the TML website

4.7. Volunteers

The TML commits to paying researchers, including student researchers. Therefore, we do not want to rely too heavily on volunteer labour and will never ask someone to volunteer with us. However, we want to be open to people who approach us and enthusiastically volunteer to contribute to the TMP. We will repeatedly evaluate our reliance on volunteer labour to ensure that we are not contributing to exploitation.  

 To become a volunteer:

• Email the lab director and explain why you want to volunteer with the TMP: LauraHorak@cunet.carleton.ca
• Read the TML Handbook (this document) and agree to abide by the rules, guidelines, and protocols

4.8. Partnerships/Collaborations

The TMP partners with film festivals, community organizations, researchers, instructors, and schools. These partnerships typically involve the following:

• An invitation from a festival or community organization to curate a program of trans-made films for their event
• An invitation from a festival to co-sponsor a trans program that they have already put together; usually this involves putting our name and logo in their program, making a short video intro or logo slide, and promoting the event to our network. In return we get publicity for our project and free tickets to the program.
• Partnering with a high school GSA on an event (e.g. screening, interviews, presentation, etc.)
• Partnering with a festival to facilitate a workshop on the TMP
• Partnering with researchers who want to use TMP data and/or tools
• An invitation from a professor, high school teacher, or community organization to give presentations about the TMP

Protocols for partnerships/collaborations:

• When we are organizing a screening, we will strive to pay screening fees to filmmakers above CARFAC rates, which are suggested minimum pay rates for artists (see section A.1.9 “Media Arts Screenings and Presentations”)
• When we are invited to co-sponsor a pre-existing program, we won’t require screening fees
• When we are invited to co-sponsor a pre-existing program, we will let them know that our policy is to only sponsor programs where the majority (60%+) of the films are written and/or directed by trans people
• When we are asked to curate a program, we will advocate for filmmakers to be paid screening fees at CARFAC rates

4.9. Paying Research Participants/Collaborators

We recognize that university funding structures present barriers for scholars collaborating with marginalized communities and often harm collaborators who rely on timely payments to cover basic living expenses.^[14] We are committed to paying TMP research participants and collaborators in a timely manner, and in cash when possible. ​​For our usability tests and screenings, our project manager has worked with Carleton’s Research Accounting department to pay testers and guest speakers in cash on the day of the events. This involves getting Research Accounting to advance the funds to Laura and accept signed statements of receipt from the payees as sufficient proof of fund use.  

4.10. Conflict Resolution

When people work together, conflict and tension are bound to happen. As Maya Livio and Lori Emerson note, conflict within feminist labs is welcomed and necessary.^[15] Livio and Emerson suggest that the way in which disagreements are dealt with “is significant for establishing affirming feminist spaces.”^[16] As such, we encourage you to hold space for respectful disagreement and to communicate any concerns you may have so they can be dealt with as soon as possible.

4.10.1. How to call someone in

We follow CLEAR’s protocol for calling one another in, rather than out. As CLEAR notes, calling in allows us “to address relationships with accountability, respect, and love.”^[17]

Protocol for calling someone in:

• Call the person in privately, not during a meeting or in front of others.
• If harm is being caused during the meeting, and you need to address it in the moment, here are some guidelines from Seed the Way for how to do that.
• As CLEAR suggests, “This is about behaviour, not people.”^[18] Rather than accuse someone of being a bad person, focus on the behaviour. CLEAR suggests using the phrase, “When you ______, I feel ________.”^[19]
• If, after you have called someone in, they have not changed their behaviour, remind them. If the person still doesn’t change their behaviour, let your supervisor (Laura or Connie) know. If the person causing the ongoing issue is your supervisor, see the section below titled “If an RA has an issue with a supervisor.”

4.10.2. How to apologize

We follow CLEAR’s protocols for how to apologize “in ways that are feminist and anticolonial, rather than the ways many of us have learned that tend to foreground logic, self-preservation, judgment, or demands for other people’s apologies rather than focusing on our own accountability.”^[20]

CLEAR’s protocol for apologizing entails two steps:

1. Articulate the wrong done and take ownership of it
2. Make reparations^[21]

CLEAR draws on the work of disability justice organizer Mia Mingus, who suggests there are five components of an apology:

1. Say “I’m sorry.”
2. Name the harm/hurt
3. Name the impact (not the intention)
4. Name the actions
5. Commit to not doing the harm again^[22]

4.10.3. What to do if you’ve been called in

If you’ve been called in, CLEAR suggests that you “take a moment to centre yourself. You are not being attacked. This is not about who you are, but something you’re doing that is impacting others.”^[23]

Protocol for if you’ve been called in:

• Don’t interrupt the person calling you in
• Don’t try to defend yourself
• Unless the person asks what your intention was, do not steer the conversation toward your good intentions, which are less relevant than the negative impact your behaviour has caused
• Apologize (see above for how to apologize)
• After you’ve acknowledged the impact of your behaviour and committed to not doing it again (as part of your apology), it is up to you to develop strategies for changing your behaviour. On your own time, establish specific steps or actions that you will take in order to change.

4.10.4. If an RA has an issue with a supervisor

• If possible, the RA should communicate the problem to the supervisor
• If that’s not appropriate/sufficient, the RA could go to the other TMP supervisor (Connie or Laura)
• If that’s not appropriate/sufficient, the RA could go to the TML ombudsperson (TBD from the advisory board), or to the departmental chair of the relevant supervisor/lab director.
• If that’s not appropriate/sufficient, the RA could follow their institution’s Human Rights Policy and Procedures.  

• Carleton’s Human Rights Policy and Procedures can be found here:

• Human Rights Policies and Procedures
• Sexual Violence Policy
• Workplace Harassment Prevention Policy
• Workplace Violence Prevention Policy

• UOttawa’s Human Rights Policy and Procedures can be found here:

• Complaints of Harassment/Discrimination Initiated by Employees
• Complaints of Harassment/Discrimination Intitiated by Students
• Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination Policy
• Prevention of Sexual Violence Policy
• Sexual Harassment Policy
• Violence Prevention Policy

4.10.5. If a supervisor has an issue with an RA

• The supervisor should communicate the problem to the RA, and the supervisor and RA should make a plan together to rectify the problem
• If the plan is not followed and the problem is not resolved, the supervisor may end the RA’s contract

4.10.6. If an RA has an issue with another RA

• If possible, the RA should communicate the problem to the other RA
• If this is not sufficient to resolve the problem, the RA should let their supervisor (Laura or Connie) know

4.11. Being in Good Relations with the Territory the Lab is on

This section will be collaboratively written by lab members in Fall 2022.

In the meantime, we have been offering the following land acknowledgement at TML presentations:

Carleton University and the Transgender Media Lab offices are located on the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin nation.

Universities, academic research, and laboratories have long contributed to colonial processes of stealing Indigenous land and resources, treating colonized and enslaved people as things, pathologizing trans and Two Spirit lives and bodies, and maintaining the cisheteropatriarchal order.

We want to begin today by asking how we can each work to understand the obligations this creates for us here and now on Algonquin territory, and what anti-colonial actions we can take individually or collectively to honour these obligations and move forward in a good way.

4.12. How to Run a Meeting

We follow CLEAR’s equitable meeting practices^[24] in order to challenge power dynamics that are often at play in meeting spaces and to ensure that space is created for everyone who wishes to provide input into the decisions of the lab. At TML meetings:

• We will always begin with a check in to see how everyone is doing
• We use “round-robins” with a “pass” option when making collaborative decisions, which allows everyone the chance to contribute to discussions and prevents someone from dominating a conversation
• One person speaks at a time; to discourage people from interrupting one another, we ask that you raise your hand if you wish to speak, and the person chairing the meeting will call on you when it’s your turn
• We draw on our anti-oppression facilitation training to make space for everyone to contribute to discussions and be heard. Similar to CLEAR, we strive to “step up to advocate for another person’s work or ideas if they are quiet, modest, or absent, and to step back if we have taken up more space than others during a conversation.”^[25]
• We rotate meeting leadership so that this task is shared amongst team members and everyone gets an opportunity to gain experience with chairing meetings.
• We collaboratively draft agendas, which entails creating meeting agendas in Google docs so that everyone can add to them beforehand.

4.13. TML Office Space

The TML office space is located in room 406 on the 4th floor of the St. Patrick’s Building at Carleton. It is a shared space that we want to be welcoming and accessible.

• The office is accessible via an elevator from the front door or tunnel level.
• The nearest gender-inclusive washroom is on the fourth floor (take a right from the office, then a left at the end of the hallway).
• There is a no-scent policy in the office. Please refrain from wearing perfume, cologne, and scented lotions, etc.
• A protocol for signing up to use the space will be developed.

4.14. Shared Documents

• Store all of your work for the TMP/TML on the shared Google drive so that all team members can access it
• For details on how to name files and which folders to store them in, please refer to the project guidelines on this
• Our shared Google drive will be backed up weekly. This task will be assigned to one of the RAs or, when they are not available, to Laura.

4.15. TMP Data Entry

Follow these protocols when entering data into the TMP:

1. Accuracy. Record the original phenomenon as accurately as possible (don’t transform it to fit an arbitrary design limitation). Make the design fit the data and not the other way around.

• Use the exact words used in the original material as much as possible.
• Don’t make imprecise dates falsely precise.

2. Accessibility. We want anyone, regardless of their background, to be able to use the tool.

• Use common sense terms as much as possible.
• Make the tool accessible to people with disabilities.

3. Maintain the research trail. Indicate where all the information is coming from in order to be accountable and also useful to scholars.
4. Respect people’s privacy. Make sure the subjects are public in the ways they want to be and not public in the ways they don’t want to be.

4.16. Amending the Handbook

If a team member wishes to amend this handbook, they should present a written proposal at a team meeting where the proposal will be reviewed, discussed, and decided upon. Once the handbook has been amended, the date for when the document was last updated will be amended and the citation statement for how to cite this document will be revised to include the current version, e.g. V.02. The amended document will then be saved to the shared Google drive. If the document is posted to a public website, the new version will replace the outdated one. The lab will officially review and revise the handbook at least once every two years.

5. Bibliography

Caretta, Martina Angela, and Caroline V. Faria. “Time and Care in the ‘Lab’ and the ‘Field’: Slow Mentoring and Feminist Research in Geography.” Geographical Review 110, no. 1-2 (2020): 172–182.

Chokly, Kit, Jay Cooper, Oliver Debney, and Laura Horak. “Usability Test Report 2020.” Ottawa: Transgender Media Portal, Carleton University, 22 June 2020. https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:30641/

CLEAR. “CLEAR Lab Book: A Living Manual of Our Values, Guidelines, and Protocols.” St. John’s, NL: Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research, Memorial University, 2017. https://civiclaboratory.nl/clear-lab-book/.

CLEAR. “CLEAR Lab Book: A Living Manual of Our Values, Guidelines, and Protocols.” V.03. St. John’s, NL: Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research, Memorial University, 2021. https://civiclaboratory.nl/clear-lab-book/.

Cole, Danielle, Izetta Autumn Mobley, Jacqueline Wernimont, Moya Bailey, T.L. Cowan, and Veronica Paredes. “Accounting and Accountability: Feminist Grant Administration and Coalitional Fair Finance.” Bodies of Information: Intersectional Feminism and Digital  Humanities. Eds. Jacqueline Wernimont and Elizabeth Losh. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2018. https://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/projects/bodies-of-information.

Horak, Laura. “Tracing the History of Trans and Gender Variant Filmmakers.” Spectator: The University of Southern California Journal of Film & Television 37, no. 2 (2017):  9–20. https://cinema.usc.edu/spectator/37.2/2_Horak.pdf

Livio, Maya, and Lori Emerson. “Towards Feminist Labs: Provocations for Collective Knowledge-Making.” Critical Makers Reader: (Un)Learning Technology. Eds. Loes Bogers and Letizia Chiappini, 286–97. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2019.

Mingus, Mia. “How to Give a Genuine Apology, Part 2: The Apology – the What and the How,” 18 Dec. 2009, https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2019/12/18/how-to-give-a-good-apology-part-2-the-apology-the-what-and-the-how

Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi. “Disability Justice: An Audit Tool,” Northwest Health  Foundation, 2020, https://www.northwesthealth.org/djaudittool

Ruddy, Evie, and Laura Horak. “Orienting Toward Social Justice: Trans, Anti-Racist, Anti-Colonial, Feminist, Queer, and Crip Approaches to Ethical Practices in the Digital Humanities.” Paper presented at the Canadian Society for Digital Humanities Conference, online, 2 June 2021.

Seed the Way. “Interrupting Bias: Calling Out Versus Calling In.” Accessed 13 May 2022.  http://www.seedtheway.com/uploads/8/8/0/0/8800499/calling_in_calling_out__3_.pdf 

Sins Invalid. “Access Suggestions for Public Events.” Accessed 22 August 2021. https://www.sinsinvalid.org/news-1/2020/6/8/access-suggestions-for-public-events

Trans Pulse Canada. “Research Team Memorandum of Understanding: Accessibility and Equity,” 8 December 2020, https://transpulsecanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/MOU-Accessibility-Equity-2020-12-08_FINAL_FINAL-ua-4.pdf