Skip to main content

Staff Profile

Dr Stephen Seely

Lecturer

  • Email: stephen.seely@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 5575
  • Address: 4.113 Henry Daysh Building (HDB.4.113)
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle Upon Tyne
    NE1 7RX
Background

Background

 I am a Lecturer in gender and sexuality studies in the School of Geography, Politics, and Sociology.


My research and teaching concern the construction and regulation of sexual difference at the intersection of socio-legal and science and technology studies. I am a specialist in feminist, queer, and decolonial/postcolonial theories and 20th century 'continental' (French and German) philosophy. Much of my empirical research has been conducted in South Africa, including as a Research Associate with the Ubuntu Project (National Research Foundation of South Africa), where I have specific area expertise.


My research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including Philosophy & Social Criticism, Theory, Culture & Society, Sexualities, The Australian Feminist Law Journal and Social Text. I have co-authored several texts with feminist philosopher Drucilla Cornell (1950-2022), including the monograph The Spirit of Revolution: Beyond the Dead Ends of Man (Polity, 2016). I have a particular interest in the work of philosopher Luce Irigaray, whose work A New Culture of Energy (Columbia University Press, 2021) I have translated from French to English.


My previous research has been supported by a Marie Curie Horizon 2020 COFUND grant and stipendary fellowships from the Institute for Research on Women (Rutgers University, 2012-2013), the Zentrum Gender Studies (Universität Basel, 2015), and the Institute of Advanced Study (University of Warwick, 2016). I have received awards from the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (2014), the Luce Irigaray Circle (2014), and PhiloSOPHIA: A Continental Feminist Society (2015).


I earned my PhD from the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexualities Studies at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in 2017 under supervision of Drucilla Cornell and Elizabeth Grosz.


I am currently the Sociology unit lead in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and a member of the Executive Board of the Luce Irigaray Circle.

 

Qualifications

PhD, Department of Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey (2017)

BA (Hons), Department of Gender & Women's Studies, The University of Illinois at Chicago (2010)

BA (Hons), Media, Rhetorical & Cultural Studies, Department of English, The University of Illinois at Chicago (2010)


Previous Appointments

Newcastle University Academic Track (NUAcT) Fellow, School of Geography, Politics & Sociology, Newcastle University (2019-2024)


Warwick Interdisciplinary Research Leaders (WIRL) Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick (2017-2019)

 

Visiting Positions

 Visiting Researcher, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (2019)

 

Visiting Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick (2016)

 

Visiting Fellow, Zentrum Gender Studies, Universität Basel, Switzerland (2015)

 

Research

My research is transdisciplinary and aims to theorize sexual difference (broadly conceived) at the intersection of law, science, and technology. In this, I draw primarily on feminist theories of difference and 'continental' (French and German) philosophy.


Current Projects

I am currently writing a monograph entitled 'Engendering Sexual Difference: Luce Irigaray's Gender Theories.' While Irigaray's philosophy of sexual difference has often been juxtaposed to 'gender theory,' this book provides the first systematic analysis of the concept of 'gender [genre]' as it functions in Irigaray's theorization of universality, language, identity, human being, and law. A piece of this work has been published in the volume What Is Sexual Difference?


I am also in the process of developing a major research project on Indigenous women's legal practices in South Africa, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and Australia. This project builds on my previous work in South Africa in collaboration with Prof Yvette Russell (University of Bristol) and Dr Rebecca Hill (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). The project aims to intervene in debates about gender, legal pluralism, and postcolonial governance. Early versions of this material have been presented at the Luce Irigaray Circle Annual Meeting (2022, Atlanta), the Institute of Advanced Study (University College London, 2023), PhiloSOPHIA: A Continental Feminist Society Annual Meeting (2023), the Luce Irigaray Circle Annual Meeting (Reykjavik, 2024), and the Philosophies of Difference Seminar (RMIT, 2024).


Past Projects

I have conducted extensive research on gender and sexuality in South Africa. From 2012-2022, I was a Research Associate on the Ubuntu Project, a research and advocacy project founded by Prof Drucilla Cornell and funded by the National Research Foundation of South Africa to study the role of Indigenous values in the post-apartheid constitutional dispensation. The project worked closely anthropologists, legal academics, activists in townships and rural areas, as well as jurists on the Constitutional Court. In the Project, I developed a work package on sexuality, which led to my first postdoctoral research project, 'Queer Theory from the South: Decolonizing Sexual Democracy in South Africa' (funded by a Marie Curie Horizon 2020 COFUND grant with the Institute of Advanced Study at Warwick University). From this research, I have developed work on the concept of ubuntu for decolonial queer theory, the role of colonial governmentality in conflicts between sexual rights and customary law, and the missing role of dignity in the literature on 'sexual citizenship.' I have been invited to present my research on South Africa at a Global Challenges Research Fund workshop at Birkbeck, University of London (2024) and a special plenary session at the European Sociological Association Biennial Meeting (Barcelona, 2021).


My PhD thesis was examined the influence of Martin Heidegger's ontological critique of technology on the theorization of sex and life in three French theorists: Luce Irigaray, Gilbert Simondon, and Michel Foucault. This work has been published in Feminist Philosophies of Life, Theory Culture & Society, and the Australian Feminist Law Journal.

Teaching


Postgraduate Research (PGR)

I am eager to supervise postgraduate research in any of my research areas, particularly projects with strong theoretical components. I am especially keen to support transdisciplinary work.


I currently supervise the following PhD theses:


  • Pilar Morena D'Alo, 'Colonial Legacies of Knowledge Production: The Political Spirituality of the Green Tide Feminist Movement' (funded by NUAcT, co-supervised with Diane Richardson and Silvia Pasquetti in GPS) (2021-present)

  • Gustavo Aguilar Miranda, 'How is the LGBTQ+ Community in the Maritime Industry Affected by the Formation of Hegemonic Gender and Sexualities?' (funded by the National Secretariat of Science & Technology of Panama, co-supervised with Nick Morgan in School of Modern Languages) (2022-present)

  • Charlie Roberts, 'Hetero-masculine Content Creation: Entrepreneurialism, Desire, and Technological Transformation' (funded by ESRC, co-supervised with Gareth Longstaff and Chris Haywood in School of Arts & Cultures) (2024-present)


Postgraduate Taught (PGT)

At Newcastle University, I co-developed a new interdisciplinary MA programme in Gender for the School of Geography, Politics & Sociology, which begins in 2025-2026. In this programme, I will be Module Leader for the Gender Dissertation module (SOC8097).


I have also developed and convene the module Global Sex, Global Race (SOC8070) and contribute to Theorising Gender and its Intersections (SOC8054).


Additionally, I supervise Sociology MA dissertations (SOC8096) on a range of topics related to gender and sexuality, such as the construction of gay identity in the Panamanian maritime sector, the performance of gender among gay educators in Thailand, contemporary masculinities in Japan and China, and the political discourse about lesbians in Uganda, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. Two students I have supervised, Gustavo Aguilar Miranda (2022) and Zoey Wang (2024), have been awarded the Master's Dissertation Prize for Gender Studies from the Gender Research Group.


I also contribute an intensive session on queer theory in the HaSS faculty module, The Making and Unmaking of Knowledge (HSS8007).


At Warwick University, I was Module Leader of Cultures of Life: Power and Authority in Modernity (SO9B2) and at Rutgers University (USA), I was co-convener of the Colloqium in Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGSS 535) on 'Feminism and the Nonhuman.' I have been invited to lead masterclasses in the Feminist Critical Analysis summer school at the Inter-University Center in Dubrovnik, the Social Theory Centre at Warwick University, the Feminist Theory summer school in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria, and the Zentrum Gender Studies at Universität Basel.


Undergraduate (UG)

At Newcastle University, I am Module Leader of the stage three module Regulating Sexuality (SOC3045). I also supervise Sociology dissertations (SOC3097) on diverse topics related to gender and sexuality, such as the semiotics of sexuality on UK dating shows, the intergenerational effects of deindustrialisation on masculinity in Newcastle, abortion stigma among university students in the UK and Malaysia, and the gendered relations of power between doctors and nurses in the NHS.


At Rutgers University (USA), I was Module Leader of Introduction to Gender, Race & Sexuality (WGSS 101); Lesbians & Gay Men in Society (WGSS 285); Feminist Theory: Historical Perspectives (WGSS 301); Feminist Theory: Contemporary Engagements (WGSS 302); Gender and Consumption (WGSS 317); and The Gendered Body (WGSS 318). I was also lecturer in the intensive first year writing module, Expository Writing (ENG 101).

Publications