Elizabeth Stephens

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. History and culture of work, productivity and fatigue; Science and technology studies; Collaboration between the arts and sciences; Gender and sexuality studies; History of science, technology and medicine

[2026] Artificial life: The art of automating living systems. Catts, Oron, Collins, Sarah, Stephens, Elizabeth and Zurr, Ionat (2026). Artificial life: The art of automating living systems. Perth, WA, Australia: UWA Press. [2026] Automation culture: intersections between art, automation, and living systems. Stephens, Elizabeth (2026). Automation culture: intersections between art, automation, and living systems. (pp. 5-17) London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. [2026] The absent body: reverse collection and feminist memory. Wilson-Barnao, Caroline, Bissell, Liz, Stephens, Elizabeth, Newton, Giselle and Enright, Lisa (2026). The absent body: reverse collection and feminist memory. Crossroads in Cultural Studies, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 27-31 July 2026. [2026] Naming violence, making wo