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Associate Professor Elizabeth Stephens

Associate Professor

School of Communication and Arts
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
e.stephens@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 52135

Overview

Elizabeth Stephens is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies in the School of Communication and Arts. She was previously an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (UQ, 2017-2021), Associate Dean Research at Southern Cross University (2014-2017), and an ARC Australian Research Fellow in the Centre for the History of European Discourses (UQ, 2010-2014). Her background is in gender and sexuality studies, and her current research focuses on three interconnected themes:

  • popular histories and representations of science, medicine and technology
  • collaborations between the arts and sciences
  • the critical medical humanities

Elizabeth is author of over 100 publications, including three monographs: A Critical Genealogy of Normality (University of Chicago Press, 2017), co-authored with Peter Cryle; Anatomy as Spectacle: Public Exhibitions of the Body from 1700 to the Present (Liverpool University Press, 2011), and Queer Writing: Homoeroticism in Jean Genet's Fiction (Palgrave 2009). She has published over 75 research articles and chapters, as well as non-traditional outputs including catalogue essays and curated exhibitions.

She welcomes inquiries from potential PhD students, and can offer supervision in the following areas:

  • cultural studies of science, medicine and/or technology
  • art/science collaboration
  • medical humanities
  • digital cultures
  • gender and sexuality studies

Research Interests

  • Collaboration between the arts and sciences
  • History of science, technology and medicine
  • Gender and sexuality studies
  • Science and technology studies

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

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Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • 43. Normal

    Cryle, Peter and Stephens, Elizabeth (2023). 43. Normal. Keywords for Health Humanities. (pp. 146-149) New York University Press. doi: 10.18574/nyu/9781479808083.003.0047

  • Re-Imagining the “birthing machine:” art and anatomy in obstetric and anatomical models made by women

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2021). Re-Imagining the “birthing machine:” art and anatomy in obstetric and anatomical models made by women. Anatomy of the medical image: knowledge production and transfiguration from the Renaissance to today. (pp. 74-94) edited by Axel Fliethmann and Christiane Weller. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. doi: 10.1163/9789004445017_005

  • Affect and automation: a critical geneology of the emotions

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2019). Affect and automation: a critical geneology of the emotions. Emotions in late modernity. (pp. 176-189) edited by Roger Patulny, Alberto Bellocchi, Rebecca E. Olson, Sukhmani Khorana, Jordan McKenzie and Michelle Peterie. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781351133319-16

  • Automation and affect: a critical genealogy of the emotions

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2019). Automation and affect: a critical genealogy of the emotions. Emotions in late modernity. (pp. 176-189) edited by Roger Patulny, Alberto Bellocchi, Rebecca E. Olson, Sukhmani Khorana, Jordan McKenzie and Michelle Peterie. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781351133319-13

  • 'Unhallowed arts': or, the science of making monsters

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2018). 'Unhallowed arts': or, the science of making monsters. Unhallowed arts. (pp. 119-127) edited by Laetitia Wilson, Oron Catts and Eugenio Viola. Perth, Australia: UWA Publishing.

  • Normality

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2018). Normality. Gender: Time. (pp. na-na) edited by Karin Sellberg. Farmington Hills, United States: Macmillan.

  • The normal body on display: public exhibitions of the Norma and Normman statues

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2018). The normal body on display: public exhibitions of the Norma and Normman statues. The Routledge companion to media, sex and sexuality. (pp. 7-18) edited by Clarissa Smith, Feona Attwood and Brian McNair. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315168302-2

  • We have always been robots: a brief history of robots and art

    Stephens, Elizabeth and Heffernan, Tara (2016). We have always been robots: a brief history of robots and art. Robots and art: an unlikely symbiosis. (pp. 29-45) edited by Damith Herath, Christian Kroos and Stelarc. Singapore: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-0321-9_3

  • Making monsters: bio-engineering and visual arts practice

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2015). Making monsters: bio-engineering and visual arts practice. Corporeality and culture: bodies in movement. (pp. 53-66) edited by Karin Sellberg and Lena Wånggren. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.

  • Homosexualité

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2014). Homosexualité. Dictionnaire Jean Genet. (pp. 322-323) edited by Marie-Claude Hubert. Paris, France: Honore Champion.

  • Réception Australienne

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2014). Réception Australienne. Dictionnaire Jean Genet. (pp. 551-551) edited by Marie-Claude Hubert. Paris, France: Honore Champion.

  • Sex as a normalising technology: early-twentieth-century public sex education campaigns

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2014). Sex as a normalising technology: early-twentieth-century public sex education campaigns. Asexuality and sexual normativity: an anthology. (pp. 82-94) edited by Mark Carrigan, Kristina Gupta and Todd G. Morrison. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge.

  • Geeks and Gaffs: the queer legacy of the 1950s American Freak Show

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2012). Geeks and Gaffs: the queer legacy of the 1950s American Freak Show. Queer 1950s : rethinking sexuality in the postwar years. (pp. 183-195) edited by Heike Bauer and Matthew Cook. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9781137264718_12

  • Geeks and gaffs

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2012). Geeks and gaffs. Queer 1950s: rethinking sexuality in the postwar years. (pp. 183-195) edited by Heike Bauer and Matt Cook. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • The queer space of the freak show

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2012). The queer space of the freak show. Queer and subjugated knowledges: generating subversive imaginaries. (pp. 48-55) edited by Kerry H. Robinson and Cristyn Davies. Oak Park, IL, United States: Bentham Science Publishers.

  • Heterosexuality: An unfettered capacity for degeneracy

    Stephens, Elizabeth and Parkhill, Chad (2011). Heterosexuality: An unfettered capacity for degeneracy. A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Age of Empire. (pp. 27-42) edited by Ivan Crozier and Chiara Beccalossi. Oxford, England: Berg Publishers.

  • Inventing the healthy body: the use of popular medical discourses in public anatomical exhibitions

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2011). Inventing the healthy body: the use of popular medical discourses in public anatomical exhibitions. The body divided: human beings and human ‘material’ in modern medical history. (pp. 223-238) edited by Sarah Ferber and Sally Wilde. Farnham, Surrey, U.K.: Ashgate.

  • Touching bodies: Tact/ility in nineteenth-century medical photographs and models

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2011). Touching bodies: Tact/ility in nineteenth-century medical photographs and models. Bodies, sex and desire from the renaissance to the present. (pp. 87-101) edited by Kate Fisher and Sarah Toulalan. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9780230354128_5

  • Introduction

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2009). Introduction. Queer Writing. (pp. 1-23) London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan . doi: 10.1057/9780230271739_1

  • Queer monsters: Technologies of self-transformation in Bulwer's Anthropometamorphosis and Braidotti's Metamorphoses

    Stephens, Elizabeth A. (2009). Queer monsters: Technologies of self-transformation in Bulwer's Anthropometamorphosis and Braidotti's Metamorphoses. Somatechnics: Queering the technologisation of bodies. (pp. 171-186) edited by Nikki Sullivan and Samantha Murray. Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate. doi: 10.4324/9781315609867-13

  • Seminal Economies: the Homoerotics of Phallic Masculinity

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2009). Seminal Economies: the Homoerotics of Phallic Masculinity. Seminal Economies: the Homoerotics of Phallic Masculinity. (pp. 96-+) BASINGSTOKE: PALGRAVE. doi: 10.1057/9780230271739_4

  • Towards an Ecriture Homosexuelle

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2009). Towards an Ecriture Homosexuelle. Towards an Ecriture Homosexuelle. (pp. 138-+) BASINGSTOKE: PALGRAVE. doi: 10.1057/9780230271739_5

  • Un Chant d'amour: Homoeroticism and the Closet of Language

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2009). Un Chant d'amour: Homoeroticism and the Closet of Language. Un Chant d'amour: Homoeroticism and the Closet of Language. (pp. 62-+) BASINGSTOKE: PALGRAVE. doi: 10.1057/9780230271739_3

  • What Remains of the Author: The Subject in/of Writing

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2009). What Remains of the Author: The Subject in/of Writing. What Remains of the Author: The Subject in/of Writing. (pp. 24-+) BASINGSTOKE: PALGRAVE. doi: 10.1057/9780230271739_2

  • Anatomies of Desire: Photographic Exhibitions of Female Bodies in Fin-de-Siecle Anatomical Museums

    Stephens, E. A. (2008). Anatomies of Desire: Photographic Exhibitions of Female Bodies in Fin-de-Siecle Anatomical Museums. Sexuality at the Fin de Siècle: The Makings of a "Central Problem". (pp. 25-41) edited by P. M. Cryle and C. E. Forth. Newark, Delaware, USA: University of Delaware Press.

  • Flesh machines: self-making and the postmodern body

    Stephens, E. A. (2008). Flesh machines: self-making and the postmodern body. Cultural Theory in Everyday Practice. (pp. 114-121) edited by Anderson, N. and Schlunke, K.. Melbourne: Oxford Journals, Oxford University Press.

  • Redefining Sexual Excess as a Medical Disorder: Fin-de-Siecle Representations of Hysteria and Spermatorrhoea

    Stephens, E. A. (2008). Redefining Sexual Excess as a Medical Disorder: Fin-de-Siecle Representations of Hysteria and Spermatorrhoea. Pleasure and Pain in Nineteenth-Century French Literature and Culture. (pp. 201-212) edited by Evans, D. and Griffiths, K.. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

  • Queer writing: homoeroticism in Jean Genet's fiction

    Stephens, Elizabeth (2007). Queer writing: homoeroticism in Jean Genet's fiction. Queer sexualities in French and Francophone literature and film. (pp. 129-144) edited by James Day. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Editions Rodopi. doi: 10.1163/9789401204903_011

  • Corporeographies: The dancing body in 'adame Miroir and Un chant d'amour

    Stephens, E. A. (2006). Corporeographies: The dancing body in 'adame Miroir and Un chant d'amour. Genet: Politics and Performance. (pp. 159-168) edited by C. Finburgh, C. Lavery and M. Shevtsova. London: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9780230595439

  • Je suis un mensonge qui dit toujours la verite: Genet's Queer Subjectivities

    Stephens, E. A. (2005). Je suis un mensonge qui dit toujours la verite: Genet's Queer Subjectivities. Soi-disant: Life-Writing in French. (pp. 41-52) edited by de Nooy, Juliana, Hardwick, Joe and Hanna, Barbara E.. Newark, USA: University of Delaware Press.

  • Un mur qui ne serait jamais abattu: Le bagne du desir dans Un chant d'amour

    Stephens, E. A. (2005). Un mur qui ne serait jamais abattu: Le bagne du desir dans Un chant d'amour. Aimez-vous le queer?. (pp. 131-139) edited by Lawrence R Schehr. New York, U.S.A.: Rodopi. doi: 10.1163/9789004333024_010

  • Watchdogs of desire: Homophobia in the novels of Jean Genet

    Stephens, Elizabeth (1999). Watchdogs of desire: Homophobia in the novels of Jean Genet. Playing the man: New approaches to masculinity. (pp. 63-74) edited by Katherine Biber, Tom Sear and Dave Trudinger. Annandale, Australia: Pluto Press.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • There is No Outside: How Artists Engage with Science to Collaborate with Nonhumans in the Anthropocene

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Detrans geographies: an exploration or borders and belonging

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • "The Problem of Living"; and "Sense and Insensibility: Pain, Trauma and the Limits of First-Person Narrative in Creative Non-Fiction"

    Master Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Affective digital labour and FemTech

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Vibes, Flows, Feelings: Investigating the algorithmic techniques of affective capitalism

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Representations of Sexual Trauma in Post-MeToo American Women's Life Writing

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Sexual Science, Medicine, and Healthy Ageing in Historical Perspective (c. 1880-1970)

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

History of Science and Medicine, Bodies and technologies, Art/Science collaboration, Cultural Studies of Science and Medicine, Experimental Art

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ResearcherID: J-1551-2018

ORCID: 0000-0002-9109-1598

Scopus ID: 16647408100

Google Scholar ID:

Personal Profile: Link

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