Overview
Background
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
Availability
- Associate Professor Elizabeth Stephens is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Research interests
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Collaboration between the arts and sciences
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History of science, technology and medicine
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Gender and sexuality studies
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Science and technology studies
Works
Search Professor Elizabeth Stephens’s works on UQ eSpace
Featured
2022
Journal Article
The mechanical Turk: a short history of ‘artificial artificial intelligence’
Stephens, Elizabeth (2022). The mechanical Turk: a short history of ‘artificial artificial intelligence’. Cultural Studies, 37 (1), 1-23. doi: 10.1080/09502386.2022.2042580
Featured
2021
Journal Article
Normality: A collection of essays
Cryle, Peter and Stephens, Elizabeth (2021). Normality: A collection of essays. History of the Human Sciences, 34 (2), 3-8. doi: 10.1177/0952695120984074
Featured
2021
Book Chapter
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
Featured
2020
Journal Article
Speculative biology: precarious life in art and science resurrection projects
Stephens, Elizabeth (2020). Speculative biology: precarious life in art and science resurrection projects. Continuum, 34 (6), 870-886. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2020.1842128
Featured
2020
Journal Article
Post-normal: crisis and the end of the ordinary
Stephens, Elizabeth (2020). Post-normal: crisis and the end of the ordinary. Media International Australia, 177 (1), 92-102. doi: 10.1177/1329878x20958151
2017
Book
Normality: a critical genealogy
Stephens, Elizabeth and Cryle, Peter (2017). Normality: a critical genealogy. Chicago, IL, United States: University of Chicago Press. doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226484198.001.0001
Featured
2015
Journal Article
Bad feelings: an affective genealogy of feminism
Stephens, Elizabeth (2015). Bad feelings: an affective genealogy of feminism. Australian Feminist Studies, 30 (85), 273-282. doi: 10.1080/08164649.2015.1113907
2011
Book
Anatomy as spectacle: Public exhibitions of the body from 1700 to the present
Stephens, Elizabeth (2011). Anatomy as spectacle: Public exhibitions of the body from 1700 to the present. Liverpool, United Kingdom: Liverpool University Press.
2024
Journal Article
Celebrating 30 years of the CSAA
Stephens, Elizabeth, Offord, Baden, Slater, Lisa, Khorana, Sukhmani, Noble, Greg, Gibson, Mark, Montgomery, Lola and Olive, Rebecca (2024). Celebrating 30 years of the CSAA. Continuum, 37 (6), 1-13. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2023.2296343
2023
Book Chapter
43. Normal
Cryle, Peter and Stephens, Elizabeth (2023). 43. Normal. Keywords for Health Humanities. (pp. 146-149) New York, NY United States: New York University Press. doi: 10.18574/nyu/9781479808083.003.0047
2023
Journal Article
Celebrating 30 Years of the CSAA: Reflections of a Departing President
Stephens, Elizabeth (2023). Celebrating 30 Years of the CSAA: Reflections of a Departing President. CSAA: News and Notes, 1-2.
2023
Conference Publication
“Artificial mothers” and the strange history of incubator baby shows
Stephens, Elizabeth (2023). “Artificial mothers” and the strange history of incubator baby shows. Australian Academy of the Humanities Annual Symposium, Melbourne, VIC Australia, 14-16 November 2023.
2023
Conference Publication
Taxonomic imaginaries: data collection and classification in the grant study
Stephens, Elizabeth (2023). Taxonomic imaginaries: data collection and classification in the grant study. Society for the Social Studies of Science, Hawaii, USA, 8-11 November 2023.
2023
Conference Publication
From fatigue studies to burn out
Stephens, Elizabeth (2023). From fatigue studies to burn out. Algorithmic Regimes and the Future of Work, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 4 April 2023.
2022
Conference Publication
Automation and the invention of life
Stephens, Elizabeth (2022). Automation and the invention of life. Cultural Studies Association of Australasia, Melbourne, VIC Australia, 1-3 December 2022.
2022
Conference Publication
'Transparent women' and the visual medical humanities
Stephens, Elizabeth (2022). 'Transparent women' and the visual medical humanities. Visual Medical Humanities international Conference, Canberra, ACT Australia, 5-6 November 2022.
2022
Other Outputs
Australasian Health and Medical Humanities: Work-in-Progress Series
Stephens, Elizabeth, Dickson, Melissa and Sellberg, Karin (2022, 08 15). Australasian Health and Medical Humanities: Work-in-Progress Series The polyphony: conversations across the medical humanities
2022
Journal Article
Review of IVF and Assisted Reproduction: a Global History, by Sarah Ferber, Nicola J. Marks and Vera Mackie
Stephens, Elizabeth (2022). Review of IVF and Assisted Reproduction: a Global History, by Sarah Ferber, Nicola J. Marks and Vera Mackie. Historical Records of Australian Science.
2021
Conference Publication
Australian medical humanities: an emerging field
Stephens, Elizabeth (2021). Australian medical humanities: an emerging field. Australian Academy of Humanities and Chinese Academy Social Sciences Symposium, Online, 3 November 2021.
2021
Conference Publication
Neutralizing nature: Automation, agricultural technologies, and the morality of improvement
Catts, Oron, Collins, Sarah, Zurr, Ionat and Stephens, Elizabeth (2021). Neutralizing nature: Automation, agricultural technologies, and the morality of improvement. 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS), Waterloo, ON, Canada, 28-31 October 2021. Piscataway, NJ, United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/istas52410.2021.9629187
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Associate Professor Elizabeth Stephens is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
There Is No Outside: Art-Science Collaborations with Nonhumans
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Amelia Barikin
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Doctor Philosophy
Detrans geographies: an exploration or borders and belonging
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Karin Sellberg
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Doctor Philosophy
Sexual Science, Medicine, and Healthy Ageing in Historical Perspective (c. 1880-1970)
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Peter Cryle
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Doctor Philosophy
Affective digital labour and FemTech
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Nicholas Carah
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Doctor Philosophy
Vibes, Flows, Feelings: Investigating the algorithmic techniques of affective capitalism
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Nicholas Carah
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Master Philosophy
With Colleagues Like These: AI in the Workplace, On and Off Screen
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Jason Jacobs
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Master Philosophy
"The Problem of Living"; and "Sense and Insensibility: Pain, Trauma and the Limits of First-Person Narrative in Creative Non-Fiction"
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Tom Doig
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Doctor Philosophy
Representations of Sexual Trauma in American Women's Life Writing
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Karin Sellberg
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Uncertain Knowledge: False Conception and Molas in European Medicine, 1500-1800
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Karin Sellberg, Professor Lisa Featherstone
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2015
Doctor Philosophy
Casanova's Celebrity: a Case Study of Well-knownness in 18th-century Europe
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Joe Hardwick, Emeritus Professor Peter Cryle
Media
Enquiries
Contact Associate Professor Elizabeth Stephens directly for media enquiries about:
- Gender and digital culture
- Health and medical humanities
- Histories of science medicine and technology
- Popular cultures of science and medicine
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