Dr Carolyn Laubender

Biography

Carolyn Laubender, Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, where she is the founding Co-Director of the MA in Gender & Sexuality Studies. Her interdisciplinary research interests include psychoanalytic theory and history; feminist theory; queer theory; trans studies; and 20th century Anglophone literature and film. Prior to joining Essex, Carolyn taught in The Program in Literature and The Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University in the US, where she was awarded fellowships from both Duke and from the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA). She holds a Ph.D. from the Program in Literature at Duke University (with dual Certifications in Feminist Studies and College Teaching) and a BA in Gender Studies and Literature from Lehigh University. She also serves as the Book Reviews Editor for Psychoanalysis & History. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Carolyn's research tends to be concerned with the ethics and politics of psychoanalysis, which she explores across a variety of interdisciplinary cultural objects, mediums, and texts, including novels, films, case studies, visual cultural, psychological archives, and state policy reports. For instance, in her first book, The Political Clinic (Columbia UP, 2024), she turns to the psychoanalytic clinic to explore how, across the 20th century, psychoanalysts themselves became formidable political actors through their clinical practice, where they implicitly transformed the privatized space of the clinic into a proto-political laboratory for reimagining the formations of race, gender, colonialism, childhood, empire, and democracy. By delving into case studies from across Britain and its former colonies, this book combines history with feminist and decolonial social theory to recast the clinic as a productive site for novel political thought, theorization, and action. Previously, she has also written about Freud, autotheory, and the "plural self"; creativity, femininity, and aesthetics; psychoanalysis and literature; psychological and political conceptions of reparation; art and imperialism in the clinic; and the triangulation of agency, sexual difference, and the gaze in 19th century scientific narrative. Currently, Carolyn is working on two new projects. The first is a commissioned new edition of Oxford UP’s Very Short Introduction to Freud (under contract; expected 2027), which will be a timely and accessible work of public humanities scholarship designed to explain Freud's relevance to a 21st century audience. The second is a special issue of Psychoanalysis & History entitled "Trans-Analytics: Psychoanalysis, Gender, and History" (expected 2026) that will explore the pressing intersections, gaps, and discords that have long characterized the relationship between transgender experience and psychoanalytic theory and practice, globally conceived. At Essex, Carolyn teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on feminist, queer, and trans theory; psychoanalytic history; and 20th century literature and film. When it comes to supervision, she welcomes prospective PhD students whose research focuses on any of the following areas of specialization: • Feminist , Queer, and Trans Theory • Radical Politics & The Clinic •. Psychoanalytic History • Generationality & Intergenerational Relationships • Psychosocial approaches to Gender and Sexuality • Post/Decolonial Theory • Psychoanalysis, Literature, and Film All inquiries about PhD supervision should include a CV as well as a 5000-word (or so) project proposal, inclusive of: a description of the intended project & its intervention; a literature review; a methodology (where applicable); and a bibliography.

Qualifications

• PhD Duke University,

Appointments

University of Essex

• Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer), Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex (1/10/2020 - present)

• Programme Director, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Essex (1/8/2022 - present)

• Programme Director, Childhood Studies, University of Essex (1/8/2018 - present)

• Assistant Professor (Lecturer), Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex (1/8/2018 - 1/10/2020)

Other academic

• Adjunct Instructor, The Program in Literature, Duke University (1/8/2017 - 31/5/2018)