Cass Chowdhury, B.A., B.A. (Hons)

After fifteen years in communications and civilian police work, I returned to school to study forensic science. I've since earned a B.A. in Anthropology and Archaeology, and an Honours B.A. in Criminology with a Forensic Studies Certificate, from Simon Fraser University in BC, Canada. I am now beginning my graduate research into the barriers and resistances to expanding skeletal sex assessments beyond the gender binary, within Canada

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My studies also focus upon general forensic anthropology, particularly for use in human identification at modern and ancient disaster sites, crime scenes and war graves. My undergraduate Honours thesis explored the best practices and documentation systems involved in the identification of transgender and gender-variant decedents in Canada. My ultimate goal is to use the tools of forensic forensic anthropology and archaeology to uncover the stories that bones hold, so that their living descendants can find closure and choose how they wish to remember and memorialize their loved ones.

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Why? The simple answer is: love and outrage. Having watched loved ones face ill-equipped systems and outright violence, as trans, non-binary or biologically intersex Canadians, and being informed by groups such as the Trans Doe Task Force, other LGBTQ2+ and BIPOC advocates within forensics, I want to help. I believe that compromising on justice is unjust, even while it is an ongoing process. As a critical/conflict criminologist, I will always be working towards better science and a more empathic approach to amplifying the voices of those impacted, and pushing science towards justice, especially regarding equal access and empowerment, the celebration of diversity and constant work towards inclusivity.

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​Outside of school, I work in the Faculty of Science at SFU, in administration and communication. I'm a volunteer webmaster for several national biological societies, and am the Entomology Lab Co-Supervisor for the Center for Forensic Research at SFU. My "free time" is generally spent in writing and fibre crafts, swimming, trail hiking, friends and family time - and road-tripping as far as possible, whenever possible.

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As a first-generation Canadian, descended from two different colonial and settler cultures, I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on the unceded ancestral and traditional territories of the səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) Nations. We use these words a great deal, but they are particularly important in forensic anthropology in any region, in which the work of decolonization is ongoing, and the cultural traditions, wishes and needs of descendants must be centralized and celebrated.