T O'Donell: Research

Thy O'Donell

A photograph of a brown man standing in a garden in front of a Japanese maple.
Hi, I'm Thy.

My name is Thy (pronounced "Tee") O'Donell, I am a current PhD candidate at the School of Sociology at the Australian National University. My broad research interests include trans studies, death and dying and care.

Outside of my research, I have experience working in transgender and gender diverse allied health, providing peer support to trans* people of all ages. I have been invited to be a panellist on several panels, including ones discussing the intersections of my experience as a trans person in Australia as well as a person of colour.

Current Research Project

The current research project that I am working on explores the expectations and desires that transgender and gender diverse people in 'Australia' might have when considering their palliative and end-of-life care wishes. This project also seeks to explore where gender comes up in the palliative care journey by talking to clinicians working in these spaces too.

Research Areas/Disciplines

Experience

Skills

Panels and Roundtables
  • In March 2026, I was a panellist on the Humanities and Social Sciences Researchers Panel held in Canberra (online and in-person). This panel focused on embarking on PhD research as individuals from racialised backgrounds in addition to more general queries about engaging in these forms of research
  • Organised by Dr. Paul Byron, I invited to participate as a panellist on the inaugural LGBTQ+ Peer Support Roundtable Discussion held at UTS (online and in-person) in December 2025. During this panel, I discussed the work that I have done as a Peer Navigator at A Gender Agenda in addition to my lived expertise and experience on accessing and providing both formal and informal peer support.
  • I was invited to be a panellist on the Racism in Healthcare Advocacy Panel hosted by the ANU Disabilities Student Association in collaboration with the International Students Department, the ANU Indigenous Department and the BIPOC Department. This panel was held in September 2025, aimed to bring awareness through sharing lived experiences in addition to discussing some of the complex influences that systemic racism has on the Australian healthcare system
Working and Research Groups
  • I am a member of the Experimenting with Estrogen working group and have participated in two of the meetings held in November 2024 and November 2025. Experimenting with Estrogen is a current ARC Discovery research project led by Professor Celia Roberts (lead), Professor Mary Lou Rasmussen, Professor Helen Keane and Dr Christine Phillips at the Australian National University. For more information on the project, click here.
  • I run the Trans Studies Reading Group. This is a reading group made up of approx. 19 academics, researchers and scholars from across 'Australia' and the UK who are working in or adjacent to the field of trans* studies. Together, we read suggested readings from across the broad spectrum of trans* studies and discuss.
Conferences, Panels & Symposiums
  • In May 2026 I presented at the Lancaster University's FHASS Health Hub’s ‘Generate’ Symposium held online. This paper, titled ‘“How can we make this comfortable?”: Imagining ‘good’ trans deaths and dying through the materiality of care’ covered some preliminary findings from my PhD research on the materialities of (death) care that have been identified across seventeen qualitative interviews.