PEOPLE
DR ANDREA WALING
​
PhD, BA (Hons)
Chief Investigator
Dr Andrea Waling is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Senior Research Fellow (DECRA) in social science and public health. She is currently based at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Waling is co-leading a program of research at ARCSHS focusing on the intersections of technology, gender, sexuality, and sexual intimacies.
Her DECRA (2020-2023) research project, "Sexuality, masculinity and technology: men and intimacy in the digital age" (Men, Sex & Intimacy) will explore how young, cisgender, heterosexual men in Australia are navigating and negotiating intimacy, sex, and consent in wake of #metoo politics and awareness around sexual violence against women. This project will enhance knowledge on the ways young men engage with women and enhance capacity to build community collaboration in working with men on gender equality. She is a co-investigator on TechSex, an ARC Discovery Project which explores medical, mechanical, and digital technologies and their impact on the sexual and intimate lives of Australians.
Alongside this, Dr Waling has worked on or led a number of projects exploring men and masculinity, young people and sexual literacy, and LGBTIQ+ health and well-being.
​
For a full list of her projects, grants, awards, and publications, please visit:
​
​
Dr Waling welcomes enquiries into higher research degree supervision. Her areas of expertise include:
​
-
Critical men and masculinity studies​
-
Bodies & body image​
-
Sexuality and sexual practices​
-
LGBTQ+ health and well-being​
-
Research ethics​
-
Qualitative research methods
DR ALEXANDRA JAMES
​
PhD, BA (Hons), BCom
Chief Investigator
Dr Alexandra James is a Research Officer at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University. She is a sociologist specialising in areas of gender and sexuality studies, human-technological interaction, and public health. Her PhD research, completed at Monash University in 2018, focused on young Australian women’s perceptions of genital fashioning practices and she was the recipient of The Australian Sociological Honours Award in 2013. Working with Women’s Health Victoria, she was the lead author of the report “'I Never Realised They Were So Different': Understanding the Impact of the Labia Library."
​
Prior to joining ARCSHS, Alexandra held positions across university and NGO sectors, including at Australian Council of Learned Academies where she worked on a report commissioned by Australia’s Chief Scientist on "The Effective and Ethical Development of Artificial Intelligence."
​
Alexandra has particular interest in the way that language is used to negotiate lived experience, identity, and public policy. Her research has been published in a range of reports, media outputs and journal articles; including in Arena Magazine, Health Sociology Review, and Critical Social Policy. In 2020, she was one of five successful competitors in the La Trobe University Reel Smart competition and pitched at the Australian International Documentary Conference.
​
Currently, Alexandra works on a range of projects about: sex, technology and intimacy; masculinity, sexuality and technology; and LGBTIQ+ people’s experience of family, domestic and sexual violence services in Australia. She is the Early Career Researcher Representative on the School of Psychology and Public Health Research Committee.
For a full list of her projects, awards, and publications, please visit:
​​​
LUKE BURNETT
​
BA (Hons)
PhD Candidate
Luke is a PhD researcher based at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society at La Trobe University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Curtin University.
​
His honours thesis explored contemporary crime fiction shows, arguing that such shows portrayed the serial killer character as an abject force that corrupted the detective tasked with stopping them. He has now switched gears with his PhD research, focusing on heterosexuality, masculinity, bodies, and desirability. He is particularly interested in exploring how men might engage with the female gaze, being perceived as the object of desire, or inviting that desire.
He recently published his first book chapter, ‘Heterosexuality and Being Desired in Magic Mike XXL’ as part of Tanmoy Baghira and Ananya Mukherjee’s edited collected Body Politics: Rethinking Gender and Masculinity (2021) published by Akhand Publishing House.
​
Luke is supervised by Dr Andrea Waling and Dr Steven Angelides.
PAST CONTRIBUTORS​
​
A number of people have been involved in this program of research prior to its conception, including the pilot studies The Dick Pic and M3: Men, Masculinities, and Mental Health.
​
-
​Professor Michael Kehler, Werklund School of Education, La Trobe University
-
Associate Professor Adam Bourne, ARCSHS, La Trobe University
-
Associate Professor Jennifer Power, ARCSHS, La Trobe University
-
Dr Lucille Kerr, ARCSHS, La Trobe University
-
Tinonee Pym, ARCSHS, La Trobe University