Harper, Joanna

Harper, Joanna

PhD Loughborough University, MSc. and BSc. Western University

Kinesiology

Biography:

Dr Joanna Harper earned her PhD in exercise science from Loughborough University in January 2024. Her area of study was the performance of transgender athletes. Dr Harper completed a post-doctoral scholar position at Oregon Health & Science University in July 2025, and started a position at Western University in London Canada in September 2025.

Dr Harper has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals on transgender athletes. Data gathered at Loughborough University has yielded two published studies: a longitudinal study on the effects of gender affirming hormone therapy on the performance of transgender athletes and a systematic review of hormone-based changes in non-athletic transgender women. Dr Harper had previously published the first peer-reviewed study examining the performance of transgender athletes. She is the author of the Rowman and Littlefield book Sporting Gender: The history, science, and stories of transgender and intersex athletes.

Dr Harper has worked closely with international and national sports-governing bodies on eligibility policy for transgender and intersex athletes, including the International Olympic Committee, World Athletics, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), and World Rowing. She speaks frequently at international meetings and symposia on the topics of transgender and intersex athletes.

Dr Harper’s interest in transgender athletic performance grew out of her own gender transition and the subsequent speed loss that she encountered as a sub-elite distance runner. She has a master’s degree in medical physics and an undergraduate degree in physics; both earned at Western University.

Research areas of interest:

Physiology of transgender people

Research Themes:

Genomics and Personalized Health

Find another Researcher

The Women’s Health Research Institute would like to acknowledge that we are uninvited guests on the unceded ancestral territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lo, and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations.

As a provincial research institute committed to improving the health outcomes of women, including those across the 2SLGBTQIA+ spectrum, we recognize our responsibility in the collective effort towards establishing culturally safe health care systems and services that address health inequities among Indigenous peoples, especially Indigenous women, girls, and Two-spirit peoples.

We encourage all people involved in research to read both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action and the In Plain Sight Report, and reflect on ways we can incorporate the recommendations into our work. As we gather in spaces together, we encourage you to reflect on your positionality on these lands and your personal commitments to reconciliation.

Top