UNews - Francisco Gomez Jimenez

Puzzle of Sexual Orientation conference brings world-class researchers to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge

caroline.zentner — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 22:19:13 +0000

While many attitudes about sexual orientation have changed dramatically in recent decades, sex researchers can still face immense backlash about their work.

It’s no wonder then that an invitation-only conference like the Puzzle of Sexual Orientation, recently held at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, drew leading sex researchers from around the world to discuss their work in the company of fellow scientists who are also seeking to build knowledge in the field.

“In the United States and certainly parts of Canada, during parts of the past decade especially, academia has become intellectually intolerant,” says Dr. Michael Bailey, a professor at Northwestern ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Evanston, Illinois who attended the conference. “In certain ways, people have valued so-called social justice and identity politics at the expense of knowledge seeking, particularly about controversial topics and our domain includes some very controversial topics.”

Organized by Dr. Paul Vasey, a professor in ULethbridge’s Department of Neuroscience, and Dr. Kelly Suschinsky (MSc ’07, PhD ’12), program evaluation coordinator at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, the conference drew 37 participants from as far away as South America, Europe, and Australasia.

“It’s the primary conference for researchers studying the biopsychology of sexual orientation broadly construed,” says Vasey. “These are the people who are advancing science in the area; these experts think about sexual orientations being more than just whether you’re attracted to men or women or both.”

Along with drawing world-class researchers, the conference was also a get-together for several ULethbridge alums who studied under Vasey and have gone on to establish their own successful careers.

Suschinsky’s work looks at how people respond to unwanted non-consensual sexual encounters. Some of her earlier work has shown that women can physically respond to fairly aversive stimuli while men don’t have the same response. Her research is geared toward finding out why men and women differ in this regard.

Dr. Francisco Gomez Jimenez (MSc ’17, PhD ’22), now a lecturer at Brunel ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ London, UK, concentrates his research on determining what aspects of same-sex sexuality are cross-culturally universal.

“What are the traits that same-sex attracted individuals, whether males or females, share across the world, which gives us some insight as to what the underlying biological components and etiology might be,” he says.

Dr. Scott Semenyna (MSc ’15, PhD ’20), an assistant professor at Stetson ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Florida, looks at cultures where feminine males and women compete for the same male partner, including the Istmo Zapotec in southern Mexico and the Polynesian island nation of Samoa. Another focus is examining how females with different sexual orientations can be objectively categorized.

During the conference, researchers addressed a wide range of topics. Bailey discussed his work in paraphilias, which are unusual sexual orientations or sexual interests, such as intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, behaviours or individuals.

“This was the best meeting I think I’ve ever attended,” he says. “We had nonstop talks over three days and it was tiring intellectually and I was tweeting the talks. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t have left the room.”

A former student of Bailey’s, Dr. Gerulf Rieger, now at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Essex, Colchester, England, focuses his research on finding an objective measure of female sexual orientation, a task that is much easier with males.

Catherine Salmon, a professor of psychology at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Redlands in southern California, studies the differences between male and female reactions to erotica. At the conference, she discussed the factors, including sex differences, that influence people’s perceptions of sexual images.

Dr. Ken Zucker, a professor at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto and editor of the Archives of Sexual Behavior, studies gender dysphoria in children and adolescents. His presentation was a meta-analysis of data across studies looking at the sex ratio of adolescents who have gender dysphoria or are identifying as transgender.

“One of the really new developments in the area of gender dysphoria over the past 15 years among adolescents is a marked increase in the number of adolescent girls who are saying that they’re transgender,” Zucker says. “The meta-analysis I conducted shows that this is something that is being observed universally, across North America, Western Europe, Scandinavia, Australia and China.”

Ray Blanchard, who retains the status of professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto, is a devoted attendee of the Puzzles conference. Blanchard studies the fraternal birth order effect, which is the finding that having older brothers increases the odds of homosexuality in later-born males.

The conference was made possible by funding from a SSHRC Connection grant, the American Institute of Bisexuality, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and private donors.

U of L community organizes fundraiser to help people in Puerto Rico

caroline.zentner — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 19:42:23 +0000

Growing up in Puerto Rico, Francisco Gomez Jimenez, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge doctoral student, knew the island as a tropical paradise. But the view through the plane window as his flight descended into the airport at San Juan on Sept. 30 was shocking.

“Puerto Rico was brown. There were no leaves on the trees. It looked like a completely different place from the one I last visited in June,” he says. “It’s always this lush, green island. Now it’s barren. It’s just devastated.”

Francisco Gomez Jimenez

Gomez Jimenez arrived 10 days after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico. While he knew his family and friends had survived, he wasn’t prepared for the devastation on the ground. The main roads had been cleared of debris but almost all of the power lines were on the ground, a billboard had smashed into a house, signs were toppled over and debris from the storm was everywhere.

Most people in Puerto Rico are still without power more than a month after the hurricane. Water treatment plants are not working and people are turning to rivers and streams for water. Mosquitoes are thick and illnesses like leptospirosis are on the rise. People line up for eight to 12 hours at gas stations and wait for service at banks and the few stores that are open for business. Malls that are open are congested with people. Temperatures are above 30 C and there’s no electricity to run air conditioners. People living in more rural areas remain isolated as damaged roadways mean supplies can’t be delivered.

“A lot of people have lost everything, their families, their houses and their businesses,” says Gomez Jimenez. “We just want to help in any way we can. There’s a big humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico.”

Dr. David Logue, a psychology professor who taught at the Universidad de Puerto Rico for a few years before coming to the U of L, had been thinking about doing a fundraiser. He, along with Karen Pinto-Larsen, a U of L student, contacted Gomez Jimenez about joining forces. They have been further reinforced by many other campus groups, including the Spanish Club, the African Caribbean Student Association, the Neuroscience Club, the International Students Association, the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, the Delta Eta Iota and Kappa Beta Gamma sororities and the Kappa Sigma fraternity. Thus, the Students United for Puerto Rico (SUPR) group was formed.

Madison Young, left, and Erika Roman, two students volunteering with the SUPR group, take donations at a table in the Students' Union building.

Donation tables will be set up this week in Markin Hall and the Students’ Union building from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Donations, however big or small, are most appreciated. Thanks to Lethbridge artist April Matisz, donors will receive greeting cards featuring Puerto Rico beach scenes. All proceeds will go to P.E.C.E.S., an organization that fosters social, economic and educational development of people and communities in social disadvantage in Puerto Rico.

“Despite everything Hurricane Maria took from us, we will rise up from this as a community,” says Gomez Jimenez. “I could also see determination in people’s faces. They’re still looking forward to the future, knowing things will get better. They still need all the help they can get and I hope this fundraiser will demonstrate that they’re not alone and that we’re thinking of them.”

Anyone wanting further information can contact david.logue@uleth.ca or karen.pintolarsen@uleth.ca.

Disasters hit close to home for two U of L students

caroline.zentner — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 19:51:53 +0000

After experiencing the earthquake that Mexican authorities have called the largest in the country in 100 years, two ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students know the devastation it caused and hope to bolster their own donations to recovery efforts by encouraging others to make a donation, however big or small.

The shaking and vibrating that caused concrete to move like liquid made Lanna Petterson (BA ’12; MSc ’15) and Francisco Gomez Jimenez, both doctoral students under the supervision of Dr. Paul Vasey, think they were being bombed. The magnitude-8.1 earthquake struck around 11 p.m. when they were in their hotel rooms for the night. Petterson and Gomez Jimenez were in Juchitán, Oaxaca working on their research projects. They had arrived on Aug. 23 and their data collection was nicely underway when the earthquake hit.

“It was terrifying,” says Gomez Jimenez. “I was in my room and preparing to go to sleep. I felt a small shake. I thought ‘This is just a small one; it will pass.’ But then it just got worse and worse and the whole building started moving from side to side. I just panicked. I didn’t know what to do. For me, the worst part was how it sounded — like we were being bombarded.”

Lanna Petterson (left) and Francisco Gomez Jimenez, two U of L graduate students, have put their research projects on hold but they hope to return to Juchitán in the future.

“I was in bed and all of a sudden the room started shaking. Your brain almost can’t process what’s happening,” says Petterson. “I kind of figured it was an earthquake but then the whole room was shaking, you hear this loud banging, you hear dogs barking outside. You can’t really make sense of what’s going on. I didn’t know if the building was falling or what was happening.”

“I went to the corner of the room, braced my arms against the walls and looked at the ceiling. It was going side to side and looked like it was going to break and collapse at any point,” says Gomez Jimenez. “I don’t know how long it lasted. It felt eternal to me. Eventually, the sound was less intense and the lights went out. I ran downstairs from the third floor. The first thing I saw, fortunately, was my colleague. All the people from the hotel were in the lobby.”

A portion of the church across the street from the hotel where Lanna Petterson and Francisco Gomez Jimenez were staying crumpled during the earthquake that struck Juchitán on Sept. 7.

People started making their way to an open market area where they spent the night. When daylight arrived, they could see the full extent of the damage. Houses had collapsed, a church had been turned to rubble and a third of the municipal palace had been destroyed. Two bars they had visited on occasion were crumpled, as was the copy store they used.

With no power, shelter, food or water, the pair decided the best course of action was to return to Canada, even though the decision was an agonizing one. They wanted to stay and help but also didn’t want to be an additional burden or take supplies away from those who really needed them.

“The next day in Mexico City there were donating centres so we filled a cart full of supplies. Still, they need all the help they can get,” says Gomez Jimenez. “Right now, we are donating what we can to the people in Juchitán, especially of course to friends of ours who need help. It’s difficult to put yourself in a situation like this but every little bit that you donate helps. That’s what people in these places need to feel — that they’re not alone, that people are thinking about them and that they’re willing to help.”

“Donating to the Red Cross or other organizations that are helping in Mexico and the different relief efforts that are going on in several countries that have experienced massive devastation recently is the best way to help,” says Petterson.

The powerful earthquake that struck Juchitán left homes and businesses in a pile of rubble.

Back in Canada, Gomez Jimenez didn’t have long to relax before Hurricane Maria tore through his homeland of Puerto Rico.

“Puerto Rico is devastated,” he says. “Friends keep sending me pictures and videos and it just looks so bad. My friends and relatives are OK fortunately, but a lot of people are not. Other people lost their houses. I did feel bad about leaving Juchitán, which is why I want to go back to Puerto Rico and help however I can.”

His mother was on a business trip in Brazil when the hurricane hit and she has been unable to get a flight back to Puerto Rico. Many people are staying in refugee centres.

“I’m hoping I’m able to get there. After everything that has happened, I just need to see my family now. Earthquakes, hurricanes, it’s just a little too much,” he says, adding one of the communication towers at the airport was damaged so that’s why flights have been hampered.

“Even before this, we were in an economic crisis. There’s a huge debt and I’m sure this is going to make it a lot worse.”

Gomez Jimenez encourages anyone who’d like to help people in Puerto Rico to donate to their preferred disaster relief agency.

U of L student awarded a National Geographic Society Early Career Grant

caroline.zentner — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 16:54:08 +0000

An interest in researching the evolution of human sexual behaviour has netted Francisco Gomez Jimenez, a master’s student studying under Dr. Paul Vasey at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, membership in an elite group.

Gomez Jimenez has been awarded an Early Career Grant through the National Geographic Society. The society’s website indicates it has awarded more than 11,000 grants for research, conservation and exploration to forward-thinking students. The Early Career Grant provides funding for individuals to have their first opportunity to lead a project, whether it involves exploration, scientific research, conservation, education or storytelling. In so doing, the National Geographic Society aims to cultivate young leaders around the world.

“In March, I received an email saying ‘Congratulations,’ and I was thrilled,” says Gomez Jimenez. “To think that the National Geographic Society thought my work was interesting enough for them to fund is amazing.”

The award of nearly $5,000 will allow Gomez Jimenez to continue his research into how male homosexuality has survived through time even though it’s not logical from an evolutionary point of view.

“One of the things we do is try to understand how a trait such as male homosexuality, which is costly from an evolutionary perspective, can survive and be passed on through generations when these homosexual males are not reproducing themselves,” he says. “Across the world, we tend to see around one to five per cent of the male population being homosexual.”

The archaeological record—cave and pottery art, specifically—provides early evidence of homosexual behaviour. Scientists like Gomez Jimenez want to know how a trait that inhibits reproduction survives over the centuries and is found all over the world. One of the hypotheses is called kin selection, where the cost of not reproducing is offset if a homosexual male enhances the survival and reproduction of his close relatives who share common genes.

Previous research by Vasey in Samoa, a culture that recognizes the fa’afafine as a third gender, has shown these same-sex attracted males tend to be avuncular, or uncle-like, in their behaviour. They invest time and resources in their nieces and nephews, something that gay men in North America typically don’t exhibit.

Vasey’s research has also demonstrated that the transgender form is the ancestral form of male homosexuality. Given this, the members of Vasey’s lab suspect that in cultures where the transgender form of male homosexuality is more common, like the fa’afafine and the muxes of the Istmo Zapotec culture of southern Mexico, the social environment is more likely to be conducive to the expression of avuncular behaviour.

A further grant from Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society, will allow Gomez Jimenez to explore another idea about the evolutionary paradox of male homosexuality. The Sexually Antagonistic Gene Hypothesis suggests that genes associated with male homosexuality, while they reduce reproduction when present in males, will increase reproduction when present in their female relatives. Tests of this hypothesis in Western cultures have been inconclusive but this may be due to overall low reproduction rates. Gomez Jimenez will test the hypothesis in the Istmo Zapotec, where reproduction rates are much higher. The Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research program is highly competitive, with only about 15 per cent of applicants being successful.

Gomez Jimenez, currently a master’s student who expects to start a PhD later this summer, plans to travel to Mexico in November to pursue his research project. He’ll be interviewing muxes and straight men to further test the kin selection hypothesis.

Originally from Puerto Rico, Gomez Jimenez completed a bachelor of science in biology at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Puerto Rico (UPR). He worked on research projects with Dr. David Logue, a former post-doctoral fellow at the U of L who was then a professor at UPR. When Logue returned to the U of L, he recommended Gomez Jimenez to Vasey. Vasey had been looking for a student who could speak Spanish and was interested in human sexuality. Gomez Jimenez jumped at the chance.

“I felt blessed and was very happy about it,” he says. “I’ve always been interested in the evolution of human sexual behaviour and have found it fascinating.”

UNews - Francisco Gomez Jimenez

Puzzle of Sexual Orientation conference brings world-class researchers to the ��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge

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