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
2018
Book Chapter
'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.
2018
Book Chapter
Normality
Stephens, Elizabeth (2018). Normality. Gender: Time. (pp. na-na) edited by Karin Sellberg. Farmington Hills, United States: Macmillan.
2017
Journal Article
Eugenics and the normal body: the role of visual images and intelligence testing in framing the treatment of people with disabilities in the early twentieth century
Stephens, Elizabeth and Cryle, Peter (2017). Eugenics and the normal body: the role of visual images and intelligence testing in framing the treatment of people with disabilities in the early twentieth century. Continuum, 31 (3), 1-12. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2016.1275126
2016
Journal Article
Technicity, temporality, embodiment: guest editors’ introduction
Aghtan, Kamillea, Ford, Akkadia, Kerruish, Erika, Olive, Rebecca, Sellberg, Karin and Stephens, Elizabeth (2016). Technicity, temporality, embodiment: guest editors’ introduction. Australian Feminist Studies, Virtual Special Issue
2016
Journal Article
Review of Gut Feminism, by Elizabeth Wilson
Stephens, Elizabeth (2016). Review of Gut Feminism, by Elizabeth Wilson. Australian Humanities Review (59), 271-275.
2016
Journal Article
Geocorpographies of Commemoration, Repression and Resistance
Stephens, Elizabeth, Gustavson, Malena and Simon, Jane (2016). Geocorpographies of Commemoration, Repression and Resistance. Somatechnics, 6 (1), V-V. doi: 10.3366/soma.2016.0169
2016
Journal Article
Review of Gut Feminism by Elizabeth Wilson Duke University Press, 240pp, 2015 ISBN 9780822359708
Stephens, Elizabeth (2016). Review of Gut Feminism by Elizabeth Wilson Duke University Press, 240pp, 2015 ISBN 9780822359708. Australian Humanities Review, 59, 271-275.
2016
Book Chapter
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
2015
Journal Article
Editorial
Gustavson, Malena and Stephens, Elizabeth (2015). Editorial. Somatechnics, 5 (2), V-V. doi: 10.3366/soma.2015.0155
2015
Journal Article
"Dead eyes open": the role of experiments in galvanic reanimation in nineteenth-century popular culture
Stephens, Elizabeth (2015). "Dead eyes open": the role of experiments in galvanic reanimation in nineteenth-century popular culture. Leonardo and Leonardo Music Journal, 48 (3), 276-278. doi: 10.1162/LEON_a_01031
2015
Book Chapter
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.
2014
Journal Article
Review of The Anatomy Murders: Being the True and Spectacular History of Edinburgh's Notorious Burke and Hare and the Man of Science Who Abetted Them in the Commission of Their Most Heinous Crimes
Stephens, Elizabeth (2014). Review of The Anatomy Murders: Being the True and Spectacular History of Edinburgh's Notorious Burke and Hare and the Man of Science Who Abetted Them in the Commission of Their Most Heinous Crimes. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 69 (4), 672-673. doi: 10.1093/jhmas/jrt050
2014
Journal Article
Anatomical dissection in enlightenment England and beyond: autopsy, pathology, and display
Stephens, Elizabeth (2014). Anatomical dissection in enlightenment England and beyond: autopsy, pathology, and display. Isis, 105 (2), 419-420. doi: 10.1086/677987
2014
Journal Article
Normal, Normalisation, Normativity
Stephens, Elizabeth (2014). Normal, Normalisation, Normativity. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 1 (1-2), 203-206.
2014
Book Chapter
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.
2014
Book Chapter
Réception Australienne
Stephens, Elizabeth (2014). Réception Australienne. Dictionnaire Jean Genet. (pp. 551-551) edited by Marie-Claude Hubert. Paris, France: Honore Champion.
2014
Journal Article
Feminism and new materialism: the matter of fluidity
Stephens, Elizabeth (2014). Feminism and new materialism: the matter of fluidity. Inter/alia: A Journal of Queer Studies, 9, 186-202.
2014
Book Chapter
Homosexualité
Stephens, Elizabeth (2014). Homosexualité. Dictionnaire Jean Genet. (pp. 322-323) edited by Marie-Claude Hubert. Paris, France: Honore Champion.
2012
Journal Article
Anatomical imag(inari)es: the cultural impact of medical imaging technologies
Stephens, Elizabeth (2012). Anatomical imag(inari)es: the cultural impact of medical imaging technologies. Somatechnics, 2 (2), 159-170. doi: 10.3366/soma.2012.0055
2012
Conference Publication
How our brains became who we are: popular neuroscience and the biometrics of affect
Stephens, Elizabeth (2012). How our brains became who we are: popular neuroscience and the biometrics of affect. Cultural Studies Association of Australasia Annual Conference (CSAA 2012), Sydney, Australia, 4-6 December 2012.
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
Detrans geographies: an exploration or borders and belonging
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Karin Sellberg
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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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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
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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
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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