Rate My Professor Lisa Baraitser

Lisa Baraitser is Professor of Psychosocial Theory in the Department of Psychosocial Studies, School of Social Sciences, at Birkbeck, University of London. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Medical Science and Psychology, an MA in Counselling and Psychotherapy, and a PhD in Psychology. A qualified psychoanalyst and member of the Institute of Psychoanalysis and the British Psychoanalytical Society, Baraitser joined Birkbeck in 2005 after working in various mental health settings that addressed the psychological ramifications of violence, abuse, and poverty in the lives of women. During this period, she also served as Artistic Director of an experimental theatre collective.

Her interdisciplinary research in psychosocial studies integrates psychoanalytic and social theory to investigate the temporal, ethical, and affective dimensions of care. Key areas include motherhood and maternal subjectivities, the ethics of care, social reproduction, reproductive time, critical time studies, and the interface between psychosocial studies, medical humanities, and psychoanalytic studies. Baraitser was co-Principal Investigator on the Waiting Times project (2018-2023), a Wellcome Trust collaborative award worth £1.2 million, which examined waiting, crisis, and chronicity in healthcare alongside Professor Laura Salisbury at the University of Exeter. She is currently Principal Investigator on Contragestive Time: Pregnant Uncertainties in Fertility Control (2025-2030), funded by a £3.85 million Wellcome Trust Discovery Award. Her influential books include Maternal Encounters: The Ethics of Interruption (Routledge, 2009; joint-winner, Feminist and Women's Studies Association Book Prize), Enduring Time (Bloomsbury, 2017), and the forthcoming Waiting Times: Crisis, Chronicity and Care (Bloomsbury, 2026). Selected articles feature "Passivity and Gender: Psychical inertia and maternal stillness" (International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2023), "The Maternal Death Drive: Greta Thunberg and the question of the future" (Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society, 2020), "Temporal drag: transdisciplinarity and the 'case' of psychosocial studies" (Theory, Culture & Society, 2015), and "(Un)timely care: findings from the Waiting Times project" (Wellcome Open Research, 2024). Baraitser received the Independent Social Research Foundation Mid-Career Fellowship in 2014.