Julia Serano is an Oakland, California-based writer, performer, activist, and biologist. She is best known for her 2007 book, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, which garnered rave reviews,The Advocate placed it on their list of Best Non-Fiction Transgender Books," and readers of Ms. Magazine ranked it #16 on their list of the 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time." Her second full-length book, Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, was a Publishing Triangle finalist for the 2013 Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction. Julia's writings have appeared in over a dozen anthologies, and in magazines and news outlets such as the Guardian, the Daily Beast, AlterNet.org, The Advocate, Out, Bitch, and Ms. Magazine.Serano's understanding of biology (she has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Columbia University and worked as a researcher at UC Berkeley for seventeen years) along with her life experiences as a transgender woman give her a unique perspective on gender and sexism, and her writings have been used as teaching materials in gender and queer studies, sociology, and psychology courses across North America. Visit her website at juliaserano.com.