Randy Hartmann

Undergraduate Fellow, Team Humans

WashU senior Randy Hartmann joins Tyson for his second summer on Team Humans. He continues his research on the transgender field research experience. 

“My end goal is to create a safety manual for working with trans individuals in the field. My data is collected through a survey. The first part asks about trans experiences in field work with a focus on negative experiences. The second part focuses on solutions that people wish they had seen from mentors.”  

What motivated you to start this project? 

“I had a traumatizing experience in the field that was directly related to my gender identity. I went to a country where it is illegal to be trans and I wasn’t adequately prepared for that. Unfortunately, I ended up having to go to the hospital because I was chased down by a group of monkeys that were the size of large dogs. Very scary. It became a very real possibility that my identity would've been found out. Thankfully I had somebody who helped me navigate that situation, but if I didn't have that person, it could have ended very poorly. It was already a traumatizing, traumatizing experience.  

Trans people deserve to be able to do field work. But mentors need to understand the physical aspects that come with that. If you are somebody who wears a chest binder, you should be informed that heat exhaustion can be amplified by wearing a chest binder. A lot of it just comes down to being educated. Feeling like yourself in the workplace lets you get good work done.”