Beth Kearney

Background

About Beth Kearney

I have over four years of experience in higher education teaching, research, and administration. In 2022, halfway through my PhD programme, I took up the roles of Lecturer in French Studies and Acting Convenor of the French Discipline at the University of New England. Since 2020, I have been a Casual Academic in French Studies at the University of Queensland. I am passionate about creating an inclusive classroom dynamic and decolonising the French Studies curriculum. My current research focuses on contemporary narratives of sexual violence, including work by Neige Sinno, Monica Sabolo, Loulou Robert, Édouard Louis, Francesca Gee, Vanessa Springora, among others. I am interested in the ways that these texts mobilise the autobiographical from to contest societal narratives surrounding gender, sexuality, violence, shame, vulnerability, and consent. I am also revising my PhD thesis for publication as a monograph. The project studies contemporary experiments in photography and life writing by women authors from across the francophone world. More broadly, my research focuses on 20th and 21st century women’s literatures and visual cultures across the French-speaking world, with special interest on experimental life writing and on the representations of women’s bodies and subjectivities. I have a strong interest in translation, as well as surrealism and modernity in France, fostering a particular interest in the lesser-known women artists and authors of the surrealist movement. I have published on these topics in both academic and public-facing avenues. My most recent research can be found in L'Ésprit créateur, The Australian Journal of French Studies, Francosphères, La Revue internationale de Photolittérature, and Sociopoétiques, among others. My literary criticism is published in The Australian Book Review, Asymptote, MAI: Feminism and Visual Cultures, and The Conversation. I am also passionate about working collaboratively within the various research networks of French studies: I am Postgraduate Officer for the Australian Society of French Studies (ASFS) and serve as Co-Communications Officer and Postgraduate Representative for Women in French (WiF): Australia, the sister association of WiF in the United States and the United Kingdom-Ireland. I am the proud co-founder and co-host, with Josephine Goldman and Pooja Booluck-Miller, of the podcast Positionalities: The Women in French International Podcast. Research: https://languages-cultures.uq.edu.au/profile/5530/beth-kearney Popular criticism: https://bethkearney.com/