Rate My Professor Elspeth Probyn

Elspeth Probyn, Professor Emeritus of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney, played a foundational role in establishing the Discipline of Gender and Cultural Studies within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Born in Canada in 1958, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and French from the University of British Columbia. She pursued postgraduate studies in media and communications at Concordia University, completing a Master's thesis on anorexia nervosa and a PhD in 1989 titled An Autobiographical Turn: Uses of the Self in Cultural Theory, which formed the basis of her first book, Sexing the Self: Gendered Positions in Cultural Studies (Routledge, 1993). Her career spanned institutions including the University of Montréal, where she joined the Department of Sociology and helped establish a feminist studies program, authoring Outside Belongings (Routledge, 1996). In 1996, she was appointed Director of Women’s Studies at the University of Sydney, evolving into the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, which she headed for several years. From 2009 to 2012, she served as Research Chair Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of South Australia, co-directing the Centre for Postcolonial and Globalisation Studies and directing the Hawke Research Institute for 18 months. Returning to Sydney in 2012, she continued her influential work until becoming Professor Emeritus in early 2025.

Probyn’s research interests encompassed feminist cultural theory, sexuality, embodied ethnography, affect theory, cultural geography, cultural studies of food, and the blue humanities, particularly focusing on oceans, fishing, and shame. Her major publications include Carnal Appetites: FoodSexIdentities (Routledge, 2000), Blush: Faces of Shame (University of Minnesota Press, 2005), Eating the Ocean (Duke University Press, 2016), and co-editor of Sustaining Seas: Oceanic Space and the Politics of Care (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020). She authored over 100 articles and chapters across gender, media, cultural studies, philosophy, anthropology, and critical psychology. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA), she received numerous international awards and fellowships. Probyn supervised at least 18 PhD students to completion, secured Australian Research Council funding, organized conferences and seminars, and contributed to the ARC Cultural Research Network (2004-2010), significantly impacting the field through mentoring and community building.