Kinnon Ross MacKinnon (PhD, University of Toronto) is associate professor at York University's School of Social Work, where he has taught since 2021. Blending the theoretical with the empirical, his interdisciplinary research and teaching draws from public health and social work, trans and LGBTQ studies, and philosophy of science. MacKinnon teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in critical mental health, critical social work, and social science research methods. He is currently on sabbatical and during this time (07/2026-09/2026) he is visiting professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, APHP-Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital at Sorbonne University (Paris).
For nearly fifteen years, MacKinnon’s primary research specialization has been transition-related healthcare, with a focus on the social dimensions and clinical practices that shape it. As principal investigator of the Re/DeTrans Canada study, and the DARE study, he spent several years examining identity fluidity, detransition, and retransition among sexual and gender minority people. He continues to communicate this research through The One Percent newsletter.
MacKinnon’s first book project, Understanding Detransition, is forthcoming and slated for publication in Spring 2027 (with Pablo Exposito-Campos; Polity Press). Providing a history and philosophy of science in the field of transgender medicine, this book is a deeply researched account of how emotions, identities, values, and social relationships reshape medical knowledge.
As a committed public speaker and academic author, MacKinnon has delivered over 65 professional presentations and published 60 scholarly papers and book chapters. His articles pertaining to transgender medicine and sexual and gender minority healthcare access issues have been published in high-impact journals such as Social Sciences and Medicine, BMJ, Critical Public Health, the British Journal of Social Work, JAMA Network Open, International Journal of Trans Health, and Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry. His research has been cited by clinical guidelines in transgender medicine, in position statements, and in evidence reviews.
Additionally, he has provided expert consultations with decision-makers in the field of pediatric transgender medicine. MacKinnon has also had the honour of delivering invited national and international talks and keynote lectures at venues such as Stanford University, Duke University, and Sorbonne University (Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris). He provided the 25th Annual College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Ethics Public Lecture at Memorial University. In 2018 MacKinnon was a top three national finalist for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Impact Award (Talent), and in 2023, he was named a Research Leader by York University. More recently, in 2024 one of his co-authored papers received the American Psychological Association's 2024 Editor's Choice award (lead author, Florence Ashley). Links to coverage featuring these works are available here.
A frequent media commentator and public-facing academic, MacKinnon’s scholarship and writing has appeared widely in the popular press, including in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Der Spiegel, SLATE, CBC News, and National Post, and he has participated in long form interviews such as with the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics’ podcast. His research on detransition, specifically, is cited often and in divergent ways by sources across the political spectrum—an issue he has raised questions about in Understanding Detransition—how detransition has become a canvas for competing values and rhetoric about transness and transgender medicine.
MacKinnon’s own academic journey has been non-linear, taking him from an undergraduate degree in history and gender studies (Saint Mary’s University, Halifax) to a post-graduate bachelor of social work (York University), then a master’s in social work (Toronto Metropolitan University). Prior to joining York University as assistant professor, he completed a PhD in Public Health Sciences and postdoctoral training at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. There he obtained fellowships at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and in health professions education research at the Wilson Centre, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. His research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and York University.
Along with his academic pursuits, MacKinnon has a lifelong passion for athletics. As a child he was an avid golfer and a kilted highland dancer; but his heart and mind were on the slopes as a competitive freestyle skier (later turned snowboarder). As a teenager he represented his home province of Nova Scotia at national Canadian championship events in both winter sports. During a few gap years between completing his MSW and beginning his PhD, he was an openly transgender competitive powerlifter, competing in the men’s division in several recreational meets in Ontario. In 2015, he ultimately won a gold medal in men’s powerlifting at the Gay Games held in Cleveland, Ohio. He also coached a men’s Special Olympics powerlifting team in Toronto for several years. An advocate for inclusion in sport, MacKinnon was named an “LGBTQ Sports Hero” by the INSPIRE Awards in 2015 and in the same year he was an invited delegate for the Canadian Olympic Committee’s LGBTQ Inclusion in Sport Roundtable.