Dr Karen Cuthbert

Lecturer (Sociology)

Biography

As a person from a working-class background, the first in my family to go to university, and the beneficiary of a Widening Access and Participation programme, I always have a little moment of disbelief when I am asked to write my university staff profile...

I joined the University as a Lecturer in Sociology in September 2021. This was a bit of a homecoming, as Sociology at Glasgow was the place where my sociological imagination was first nurtured, having completed my undergraduate, MRes and PhD all in the department. My PhD explored how 'nonsexualities' (asexualities, celibacies and sexual abstinence) are gendered - both in terms of how they are discursively constructed, and how they are experienced and ‘lived’ - as well as thinking more broadly through the theoretical and empirical relationship between gender and sexuality. I also worked for many years as a graduate teaching assistant across the School of Social and Political Sciences.

Prior to joining the University again as a Lecturer, I held a variety of posts, including:

A researcher on the Making Space for Queer Religious Youth project, based in Education at the University of Strathclyde
A researcher on the Intimate Migrations: Lesbian, gay and bisexual migrants in Scotland project at the University of Glasgow
A Research Fellow on the Living Gender in Diverse Times: Young People's Understandings and Practices of Gender in the Contemporary UK project at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield. I also lectured and supervised whilst in this role.

I also sit on the editorial board of The Sociological Review.

I work broadly and primarily within the sociology of gender and sexualities, but also have expertise and experience within youth studies, disability studies, and the sociology of religion. I'm also a massive methods nerd, and love talking, thinking and writing about both the practical and philosophical elements of methodology.

I approach my work - both pedagogy and research - as an intersectional socialist-feminist, with a keen awareness of power and inequalities, and a desire for and commitment to profound societal transformation (including within the academy).

Research interests

My research interests include but are not limited to:

Nonsexualities (asexualities, celibacies, sexual abstinence)
Sexual agency, desire and subjectivities more broadly
Gender (persisting inequalities under heteropatriarchy but also potentially new shifting gendered terrains)
Qualitative methodologies (particularly creative methods) and epistemological questions
Feminisms and feminist theory
Youth and young people
Disability - especially autism
Intersecting inequalities
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion regimes

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2023 | 2022 | 2020 | 2019 | 2017

Number of items: 11.

2023

Cuthbert, K. (2023) Neither ‘incel’ nor ‘volcel’: Relational accounts of UK women's sexual abstinence. Womens Studies International Forum, 101, 102835. (doi: 10.1016/j.wsif.2023.102835)

2022

Cuthbert, K. (2022) Researching ‘non-sexualities’ via creative notebooks: epistemology, embodiment and empowerment. Qualitative Research, 22(6), pp. 897-915. (doi: 10.1177/1468794121999011)

Cuthbert, K. (2022) Asexuality and epistemic injustice: a gendered perspective. Journal of Gender Studies, 31(7), pp. 840-851. (doi: 10.1080/09589236.2021.1966399)

Cuthbert, K. , Hall, J. J., Hines, S., Allen, K. and Elley, S. (2022) Hearing, policing, and using gender diversity: the role of institutional gatekeepers in researching youth and gender. Sociological Research Online, 27(3), pp. 763-786. (doi: 10.1177/13607804211065053)

Allen, K., Cuthbert, K. , Hall, J. J., Hines, S. and Elley, S. (2022) Trailblazing the gender revolution? Young people's understandings of gender diversity through generation and social change. Journal of Youth Studies, 25(5), pp. 650-666. (doi: 10.1080/13676261.2021.1923674)

2020

Cuthbert, K. (2020) Disability and asexuality? In: Shuttleworth, R. and Mona, L. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Disability and Sexuality. Series: Routledge international handbooks. Routledge: London ; New York, pp. 366-377. ISBN 9781138593237 (doi: 10.4324/9780429489570-32)