About Me

My name is Max Appenroth and I’m a trans activist and researcher from Berlin/Germany. I am currently a doctoral student at the Institute of Public Health at the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. I am also doing a project internship at the Robert Koch Institute in the department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, analyzing data of sexual health and beahvior of trans men* in Europe.

Additionally, I am the project coordinator of the working group on trans men and HIV within the organization Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE). With the work in this group we aim to produce more knowledge, generating data and the inclusion of trans men in international HIV response.

I offer my help as an independent consultant on strengthening trans-inclusivity in policy making, strategic planning, research development & funding applications. Through many years of experience in advocacy work, I can support you in the process of making your organization, research project and/or service more open for gender diverse populations. Please check out Consulting for more information.

Since September 2018, I am a part time research assistant at the project „CILIA LGBTIQ+ – Comparing Intersectional Life Course Inequalities Amongst LGBTIQ Citizens in Four European Countries„.

From April 2017 until March 2019 I taught a seminar on Gender and Queer Studies for students of Social Work at the Alice-Salomon-University of Applied Sciences in Berlin.

I am the editor of the book "Trans & Care: Trans Personen zwischen Selbstsorge, Fürsorge und Versorgung", which is the first book about trans inclusive health care in German.

Besides my academic focus on Trans & Gender Studies, I engage in local and global activism for our community since 2008. For example, for three years (2017-2019) I was a member of the Grant Making Panel of the „International Trans Fund„.

In my doctorate, I am researching the question of how a trans identity affects the access to medical care. I particularly focus on sexual health of trans identified poeple and trans sex workers. Looking at the current research situation, it becomes clear that this population faces a higher risk for, i.e. living with HIV, compared to the cis gender mainstream population. Access to STI prevention, testing, and treatment are often limited and depend on the financial situation of a person.

On the basis of the results of the study, further options and guidelines are to be developed to reduce barriers for trans people in the medical care system.

In my M.A. thesis, I have already worked on partial aspects of my doctoral thesis project and specifically examined the needs of the aging trans community. I was able to draw a picutre of the life circumstances of older trans adults through an independent research project in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley. This research project was based on expert interviews and an analysis of literature and research data. In the past, I have worked as a student research assistant and later as a research assistant in the IFAF-funded project „GLEPA – LGBTI* Aging and Care“ from September 2015 to July 2017. Through this project, I have gained already experiences with gathering and the evaluation of qualitative data.

The topic of my Bachelor’s thesis was on „Male Violence from a Trans Perspective“, which included a critical view on the social construction of masculinity. Through an online survey targeted on trans masculine identities, I looked into the different socialization of cis- and trans men and their percepeptions of violence. I was able to show that aggression and violence are not as strongly linked to natural attributes, such as i.e testosterone, as  often believed.

Throughout the last years I gained a lot of experience in preparing and delivering workshops and lectures around the topics of sex, gender and sexual diversity. Additionally, I offer support and trainings for organizations and NGOs looking into funding options. Through my experience about, on the one hand, successfully applying for funding, as well as, on the other hand, evaluating international grant applications,  I am able to provide advise in this process (for further information, please see the section about Consulting).