Beth Kearney

Beth (she/elle) is Lecturer in French and Francophone Studies. Her research focuses broadly on francophone literature and visual cultures (20th-21st centuries); gender studies; global feminisms; and decolonial and transnational theory.

Her first book, Unfixing the Self in Contemporary Women's Phototexts of the Francophone World (forthcoming, Edinburgh University Press) studies works of experimental autobiography in French – including autofiction, biofiction, autotheory – that include photographs alongside text. This monograph explores the ways that the combination of photography and autobiographical text disrupts fixed modes of understanding identity and experience by challenging hegemonic narratives about the self.

Her current research focuses on contemporary narratives of sexual and gender violence in French, and she is also working on two edited volumes: The Heirs of Annie Ernaux with Alexandra Pugh and Questioning Republican Feminism: Intersectional, Transnational, and Decolonial Perspectives with Josephine Goldman and Sophie Tallis.

Beth is Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Treasurer for the Australian Society of French Studies, and Secretary for Women in French: Australia. She is on the editorial board of the book series Annie Ernaux International Studies (De Gruyter Brill) and is the proud co-founder and co-producer of the podcast Positionalities (with Josephine Goldman and Pooja Booluck-Miller). She is also Peer Group Leader for the WiF Mentorship Cluster ‘I’m Writing a Monograph.’