About GSS at Deakin University

Welcome to Deakin University’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Research Network.

Sex, gender and sexuality play important roles in people’s everyday lives.

Love. Desire. Pleasure. Intimacy. Relationships. Identities. Practices.

They shape how we understand ourselves and the structures we live in.  They are prominent features of contemporary and historical life, in art and literature, in popular culture and the media, in politics and the law, in marketing and advertising, in health and wellbeing, in the economics of family life and work, and in our public identities and intimate lives.

  • But how is it that sex, gender and sexuality have come to mean so much?
  • What are the histories behind our contemporary understandings and practices?
  • What are the legacies of feminism and LGBTIQ struggles and how do they play out in the present?

At Deakin, we explore these questions through events, research, teaching, and relationships with community partners. You can learn more about our work on this website.

Deakin’s GSS Research Network is a space that fosters scholarly, collegial and community-connected explorations of questions linked to the significance of sex, gender and sexuality in contemporary and historical cultures.

As part of our annual calendar of events, we run, on the First Friday of the month, a monthly postgraduate masterclass series for Deakin HDR candidates, and a public seminar series.  

Gender and Sexuality Studies Research Network

The Research Network is an initiative of the Gender and Sexuality Studies Working Party. The GSS Research Network draws together people from across the university; it is affiliated with the Writing and Literature group within the School of Communication and Creative Arts.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of Deakin University’s Faculty of Arts and Education, School of Communication and Creative Arts and Deakin Motion.Lab – Centre for Creative Arts Research.