Research

Academic staff and their field of research

Areas of Research Expertise in Women’s Studies: Feminist theory and cultural studies; gender in Australian culture; sexuality studies and queer theory; citizenship and national identity; reproduction, maternity politics in particular; gender and politics in Latin America, the former Soviet Republics and the developing world generally; gender, race and ethnicity; politics and government of 'private life'; marriage and marriage-like relationships; intersections of race and sex in Australia; politics and sport; drug-use and policies relating to illicit drugs.

Associate Professor and Head of Department
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR BARBARA BAIRD, BA(Flinders) Grad Dip(SACAE), PhD(Flinders)

Barbara was appointed Head of the Women's Studies Department in July 2006. She teaches introductory Women's and Gender Studies, feminist theory, sexuality studies and queer theory, feminist cultural studies, interdisciplinary historical studies and engages with the challenges posed by Indigenous women. Her research concerns the politics and cultural formations of reproduction and sexuality and the intersections between gender, sexuality, race and national identity. She currently holds an Australian Research Council Discovery grant to investigate gender and sexuality politics during the Howard era and their intersections with the politics of race and national identity.
Barbara is located in Room 218SSS. Phone 8201 2331; email: Barbara.Baird@flinders.edu.au

Research Projects

• Australian Research Council Discovery Project: "Reconfiguring intimate life: Gender and Sexuality as sites of national redefinition in Australia since 1996"
• The place of 'the child' in discourses of national identity: understanding the classed, raced, gendered and sexualised nature of "the child" and children.

Publications

2007 "Gay marriage", lesbian wedding', Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review, Vol. 3 no.3.

2006 ‘Maternity, Whiteness and National Identity: The Case of Abortion’, Australian Feminist Studies, 21 (50).

2006 ‘The futures of abortion’, Women Making Time, eds E. McMahon & B. Olubas, UWA Press.

2006 ‘Sexual citizenship in “The New Tasmania”’, Political Geography (special issue ‘Sexual Citizenship’) 25 (8).

2005 with Steven Angelides, ‘Introduction' 'histories of sexuality' special issue, Australian Historical Studies no. 126. (Steven Angelides & I were guest editors for this special issue).

2005 'Kerryn and Jackie': Thinking historically about lesbian marriages’, Australian Historical Studies (special issue ‘histories of sexuality’) no. 126.

2005 'The L Word. Histories, Theories and contemporary stories about lesbianism' in Perspectives in Human Sexuality, eds. J. Scott & G. Hawkes, OUP.

2004 'Contexts for lesbian citizenships across Australian public spheres’, Social Semiotics, vol. 14, no. 1.

2004 'Disciplining the aborting woman: Social work and changing discourses of race, class and reproduction in 1950s Australia' OeZG (Austrian Journal of History), (special issue ‘Bodies/Politics’), vol. 15, no. 1.

2004 'The View from Women’s Studies and Gender Studies: Australian Studies in a Feminist Context' in Teaching Australian Studies eds K. Darian-Smith, G. Worby & D. Carter, UQP.

Senior Lecturer
DR YVONNE CORCORAN-NANTES, BA Hons, MA, PhD (Liverpool)

Yvonne came to Flinders in 1992 as a joint appointment in Women’s Studies and Politics. Her principal areas of teaching and research are in gender and development, with a specific focus on Latin America and the post soviet republics of Central Asia. Yvonne also has teaching and research interests in the debates about the practice of feminist politics in Australia and the developing world. Yvonne has published major UN Reports on the status of women in Central Asian republics and in post Soviet Mongolia and is a world expert on gender and development.
Yvonne is Convenor of Postgraduate Studies.
Yvonne can be found in Room 315 SSS
Phone 82013133, email Yvonne.Corcoran-Nantes@flinders.edu.au

Research projects

• ‘Gender and non-institutional politics in the developing world with specific reference to Latin America’
• Women in Central Asia - in the post independence period
• The fight for land in Brazil: women in the landless movement

Publications

Lost Voices: Central Asian Women Confronting Transition, Zed Books, London, 2005.

"A History of Modern Brazil: The Past Against the Future" (2003) by Colin M. MacLachlan, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 2005, 24(1):131-133.(Book Review)

"Useful or Useless: Feminist Theory and Female Empowerment in Indonesia" in Embracing the Earth: Women's Worlds 2005 - 9th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women Abstract Book, Ewha Woman's University, Seoul, Korea.

'Australia-Country Institutional Report' in Women's/Gender Studies in Asia-Pacific, UNESCO, Bangkok, 2004, pp.195-199.

'Female Consciousness or Feminist Consciousness?: Women's Consciousness Raising in Community-Based Struggles in Brazil' in B. Smith (ed.), Feminist Theory Reader, Routledge, New York, 2003, pp.126-137.

Corcoran-Nantes, Y. Roberts, K., ' 'We've got one of those!': The Peripheral Status of Women in the Male-Dominated Industries', Workplace/Women's Place, Roxbury, Los Angeles, CA, 2003, pp.302-320.

'Environment: Commonwealth of Independent States' in C. Kramarae and D. Spender (eds), Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge, Routledge, London & New York, 2001.

Women's Access to Micro-Credit in Mongolia, WIRC, Ulaanbatar, 1999, (with A. Luvsanjamts and U. Gombosuren).

The Economic Status of Mongolian Women in the Transition Period , WIRC: Ulaanbatar 1998.

'Chattels and Concubines: Women in Slavery in Brazil' in Ronit Lentin (ed.), Gender and Catastrophe, Zed Books: London 1997.

Adjunct Professor of Women's Studies and English
PROFESSOR SUSAN SHERIDAN, BA Hons (Sydney), Dip. TESL, PhD (Adelaide)

Sue joined the Women’s Studies Department in 1987. Her major areas of teaching and research are Australian cultural studies and feminist theory. She has published major texts on the writer Christina Stead, on sex, race and nation and in Australian women’s writing and on feminist cultural criticism.

Sue retired from teaching in January 2006. She has an ARC Discovery Grant to research Australian women writers and post WWII modernity. Sue is located in Room 354SSS. Phone 82013272, email: Sue.Sheridan@flinders.edu.au.

Research projects

• The Changing Reception of Women's Writing in the 1970s - Adrienne Rich and Angela Carter
• Australian Women Writers and Artists in Postwar Australia

Publications

'Violence, Irony and Reading Relations: Thea Astley's Drylands' in Paul Genoni and Susan Sheridan (eds) Thea Astley's Fictional Worlds Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006.

'Adrienne Rich and the Women's Liberation Movement: A Politics of Reception', Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 35, no.1, 2006, 17-46.

'Feminism in the News' (with Susan Magarey and Sandra Lilburn) in Joanne Hollows and Rachel Moseley (eds), Feminism in Popular Culture, Oxford and New York: Berg, 2006, pp.25-40.

'Women's Magazines' in Companion to Women's Historical Writing, (eds) Spongberg, M. Curthoys, A. and Caine, B., Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2005.

'Christina's Stead's Last Book: The Novel and the Best-Seller', Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 2003, 2:41-52.

'Thea Astley: A Woman among the Satirists of Postwar Modernity', Australian Feminist Studies, 2003, 18(42):261-271.

"The Day Simone de Beauvoir Died in Australia" by Sylvia Lawson, Australian Feminist Studies, 2003, 18(42):331-332. (Book Review)

Who Was That Woman? The Australian Women's Weekly in the Postwar Years, University of NSW Press, 2002 (with Barbara Baird, Kate Borrett & Lyndall Ryan)

Along the Faultlines: Sex, Race and Nation in Australian Women's Writing, 1880s to 1930s, Allen & Unwin, 1995.

Senior Lecturer
DR HEATHER BROOK, BA (Hons) (University of Adelaide) PhD (ANU)

Heather joined the Women's Studies Department in 2000. Her areas of teaching include Sex, Gender and Identities in Australia (WMST1001), Thinking Through the Body (WMST3001) and Protest & Dissent (POLI 3066). Heather's main research interest is the body and its regulation in social life. She has published a book on marriage and marriage-like relationships, along with several articles on marriage, feminist theory, drug use, sport and sexualities. Heather is Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Heather is located in Room 210sss, telephone 82012136
email: Heather.Brook@flinders.edu.au

Research projects

• Adventures in Heterosexuality (with Chris Beasley and Mary Holmes)
• Corpus: A social anatomy of gender
• Marriage: Traditions and transitions

Publications

"Marriage". International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities, (eds) Michael Flood, Judith Kegan Gardiner, Bob Pease and Keith Pringle, Routledge: London, 2007.

'Users, Using, Used: A beginner's guide to deconstructing drugs discourse', International Journal of Drug Policy, 2005, Vol.16 (5): pp.316-325.

'Gender Studies Casts Off', Australian Feminist Studies, 2005, 20(47): 255-259.

'Just Married? Adversarial Divorce and the Conjugal Body Politic', Journal of Feminism & Psychology, 2004, 14(1), 81-99. Special Issue on Marriage (II) Vol. 14(1):81-99.

Review of Cheshire Calhoun (2000) Feminism, the Family, and the Politics of the Closet, Journal of Feminist Theory, 2004, 5(1) 104-105.

Heath, MA; Brook, HJ; Davies, MJ, Submission to the Attorney-General (SA) concerning the Discussion Paper "Removing Legislative Discrimination Against Same-Sex Couples (2003)", Adelaide, SA, 2003, 17 pages.

Stalemate: Rethinking the Politics of Marriage, Feminist Theory, 2002, 3(1): 45-66.

'Governing Failure: Politics, Heroin, Families', International Journal of Drug Policy, 2002, 13(3): 171-180.