Laura Roberts received her PhD in Philosophy from The University of Queensland, Australia, where she currently teaches Gender Studies and Philosophy. Although she now resides in Australia, Laura was born and raised in South Africa and began her undergraduate studies in Drama and Philosophy at The University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. Her research interests emerge from the field of post-colonial/decolonial theory and feminist philosophy, particularly the work of Luce Irigaray and Gayatri Spivak. Laura has recently published her monograph, Luce Irigaray and Politics, with Edinburgh University Press (2019), in which she explores the question of the political in Luce Irigaray’s philosophy of sexuate difference. Her new research question(s), evolving out of her work in this book and time spent in Barcelona, explore the links between feminist theory and the feminisation of politics in the new international municipalist movement, with a particular focus on the strategies and policies of Barcelona en Comú. Laura is co-director of The Irigaray Circle (irigaray.org) and is a founding member of the community-based Queensland School of Continental Philosophy (https://www.qldscp.org) that seeks to bring philosophical and political conversations back into the wider community.
Journal Article: Sexuate difference, sovereignty and colonialism: reading Luce Irigaray with Irene Watson
Roberts, Laura (2022). Sexuate difference, sovereignty and colonialism: reading Luce Irigaray with Irene Watson. Sophia, 61 (1), 151-168. doi: 10.1007/s11841-022-00924-1
Journal Article: Thinking Politically with Luce Irigaray
Roberts, Laura and Škof, Lenart (2022). Thinking Politically with Luce Irigaray. Sophia, 61 (1), 93-97. doi: 10.1007/s11841-022-00923-2
Book: Irigaray and politics: a critical introduction
Roberts, Laura (2019). Irigaray and politics: a critical introduction. Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press. doi: 10.1515/9781474422833
Forest Lovers, Live Forever: Bringing Val Plumwood and Luce Irigaray into dialogue on topics of life, love and death in the age of ecological crisis
Doctor Philosophy
Women's Law: Luce Irigaray on Sexed Rights and Responsibilities
(2021) Doctor Philosophy
(2020) Doctor Philosophy
Irigaray and politics: a critical introduction
Roberts, Laura (2019). Irigaray and politics: a critical introduction. Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press. doi: 10.1515/9781474422833
Irigaray and politics: a critical introduction
Roberts, Laura (2019). Irigaray and politics: a critical introduction. Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press. doi: 10.1515/9781474422833
Roberts, Laura (2016). Making mischief: thinking through women’s solidarity and sexuate difference with Luce Irigaray and Gayatri Spivak. Identity and difference: contemporary debates on the self. (pp. 201-231) edited by Rafael Winkler. Cha, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-40427-1_9
Cultivating difference with Luce Irigaray's 'Between east and west'
Roberts, Laura (2015). Cultivating difference with Luce Irigaray's 'Between east and west'. Building a new world: Luce Irigaray: teaching II. (pp. 58-76) edited by Luce Irigaray and Michael Marder. London: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9781137453020_5
Sexuate difference, sovereignty and colonialism: reading Luce Irigaray with Irene Watson
Roberts, Laura (2022). Sexuate difference, sovereignty and colonialism: reading Luce Irigaray with Irene Watson. Sophia, 61 (1), 151-168. doi: 10.1007/s11841-022-00924-1
Thinking Politically with Luce Irigaray
Roberts, Laura and Škof, Lenart (2022). Thinking Politically with Luce Irigaray. Sophia, 61 (1), 93-97. doi: 10.1007/s11841-022-00923-2
Wonder as feminist pedagogy: disrupting feminist complicity with coloniality
Ramos, Fabiane and Roberts, Laura (2021). Wonder as feminist pedagogy: disrupting feminist complicity with coloniality. Feminist Review, 128 (1), 28-43. doi: 10.1177/01417789211013702
Roberts, Laura (2020). Ryan S. Gustafsson, Rebecca Hill, and Helen Ngo (editors), Philosophies of Difference: Nature, Racism, and Sexuate Difference. London and New York: Routledge, 2019 (ISBN 13: 978-1-138-61750-6). Hypatia Reviews Online, 2020 E14. doi: 10.1017/s2753906700003363
Disrupting time: somatechnics and the opening of the interval
Roberts, Laura (2019). Disrupting time: somatechnics and the opening of the interval. Australian Feminist Studies, 34 (99), 60-72. doi: 10.1080/08164649.2019.1605485
A revolution of love: thinking through a dialectic that is not "One"
Roberts, Laura (2017). A revolution of love: thinking through a dialectic that is not "One". Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 32 (1), 69-85. doi: 10.1111/hypa.12306
Irigaray: towards a sexuate philosophy (review)
Roberts, Laura (2012). Irigaray: towards a sexuate philosophy (review). L'Esprit Créateur, 52 (3), 123-124. doi: 10.1353/esp.2012.0029
Roberts, Laura (2015). Representing a Radical Intersectional Feminine Subjectivity: Luce Irigaray and Céline Sciamma’s 'Girlhood'. Australian Society for Continental Philosophy 2015 Conference, University of New South Wales, 2-4 December 2015.
The Philosophical Significance of African Women’s Writing
Roberts, Laura (2015). The Philosophical Significance of African Women’s Writing. Cosmopolitanism/Women Writers/Biography Conference, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, 13-14 July 2015.
Irigaray and Beauvoir: Radicalising Sexual Difference
Roberts, Laura (2014). Irigaray and Beauvoir: Radicalising Sexual Difference. Australian Society for Continental Philosophy 2014 Conference, ACU, Fitzroy, 4-6 December 2014.
Luce Irigaray and Gayatri Spivak: Toward a (non traditional) Ontology of Sexual Difference
Roberts, Laura (2014). Luce Irigaray and Gayatri Spivak: Toward a (non traditional) Ontology of Sexual Difference. Luce Irigaray Circle Conference, RMIT, Melbourne, 10-12 December 2014.
Luce Irigaray’s Psychoanalytic Contexts: Melanie Klein and Béla Grunberger
Roberts, Laura (2013). Luce Irigaray’s Psychoanalytic Contexts: Melanie Klein and Béla Grunberger. Australian Association of Philosophy Conference 2013, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, 7-12 July 2013.
Cultivating Sexuate Difference with Luce Irigaray’s 'Between East and West'
Roberts, Laura (2012). Cultivating Sexuate Difference with Luce Irigaray’s 'Between East and West'. London Conference in Critical Thought, Birkbeck College, London, England, 29-30 June 2012.
Seeing the wood for the trees: Sexuate difference as an irreducible component of the universal
Roberts, Laura (2010). Seeing the wood for the trees: Sexuate difference as an irreducible component of the universal. Sexuate Subjects Conference, London, U.K., 3 - 5 December 2010.
Intersections of difference in Luce Irigaray's later work
Roberts, Laura (2009). Intersections of difference in Luce Irigaray's later work. PhiloSophia Conference, New York, NY, U.S.A., 27-28 May 2009.
The task of thinking through a placental economy
Roberts, Laura (2009). The task of thinking through a placental economy. Seminar of: Luce Irigaray, London, England, 15 - 20 June 2009.
Irigaray’s Bodies: Celebrating a culture of difference
Roberts, Laura (2008). Irigaray’s Bodies: Celebrating a culture of difference. Third annual conference of the Luce Irigaray Circle, Hempstead, New York, United States, 12-13 September 2008.
An alchemy of radical love: Luce Irigaray's ontology of sexuate difference
Roberts, Laura Jane (2015). An alchemy of radical love: Luce Irigaray's ontology of sexuate difference. PhD Thesis, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/uql.2015.661
Forest Lovers, Live Forever: Bringing Val Plumwood and Luce Irigaray into dialogue on topics of life, love and death in the age of ecological crisis
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
Women's Law: Luce Irigaray on Sexed Rights and Responsibilities
(2021) Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
(2020) Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors: