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
A new research project examines the history and culture of work, productivity and fatigue. Elizabeth is author of over 100 publications, including four books: Artificial Life: The Art of Automating Living Systems (University of Western Australia Press, 2025), co-authored with Oron Catts, Sarah Collins, and Ionat Zurr, 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 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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History and culture of work, productivity and fatigue
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Science and technology studies
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Collaboration between the arts and sciences
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Gender and sexuality studies
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History of science, technology and medicine
Works
Search Professor Elizabeth Stephens’s works on UQ eSpace
1999
Conference Publication
Phallic Worship in the Novels of Jean Genet
Stephens, Elizabeth (1999). Phallic Worship in the Novels of Jean Genet. Literature and Psychoanalysis Conference, Sydney , Australia, 1998.
1998
Journal Article
Satyrical men: Genet’s theatre of masculinity
Stephens, Elizabeth (1998). Satyrical men: Genet’s theatre of masculinity. Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, 5 (1), 30-33.
1997
Journal Article
The technologies of recuperation: The failures of Dada poetry
Stephens, Elizabeth (1997). The technologies of recuperation: The failures of Dada poetry. Southerly, 57 (1), 79-90.
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Associate Professor Elizabeth Stephens is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose 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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Master Philosophy
With Colleagues Like These: AI in the Workplace, On and Off Screen
Principal Advisor
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Doctor Philosophy
Digital Arenas and Gendered Politics: Analyzing the Social Media Strategies of Female Politicians in the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) of South Sumatra, Indonesia
Principal Advisor
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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
Vibes, Flows, Feelings: Investigating the algorithmic techniques of affective capitalism
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Nicholas Carah
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Doctor Philosophy
Affective digital labour and FemTech
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Nicholas Carah
Completed supervision
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2025
Doctor Philosophy
There Is No Outside: Art-Science Collaborations with Nonhumans in the Anthropocene
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Amelia Barikin
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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
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2024
Doctor Philosophy
Representations of Sexual Trauma in American Women's Life Writing
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Karin Sellberg
Media
Enquiries
Contact Associate Professor Elizabeth Stephens directly for media enquiries about:
- Gender and digital culture
- Health and medical humanities
- history and culture of work
- Popular cultures of science and medicine
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