Dr Carolyn Laubender

Biography

I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, where I am the founding Director of the MA in Gender & Sexuality Studies. My interdisciplinary research interests include psychoanalytic history and theory; gender and sexuality studies; and the medical humanities. Prior to joining Essex, I taught in The Program in Literature and The Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University in the US. I hold a Ph.D. from the Program in Literature at Duke University (with dual Certifications in Feminist Studies and College Teaching) and a BA in Gender Studies and Literature from Lehigh University. I also serve as the Asst. Editor for Psychoanalysis & History and am a standing member (2026-29) of the Wellcome Discovery Award Interview Panel. As an interdisciplinary scholar, my research explores the history of psychoanalysis and the affiliated "psy" mind sciences with an eye toward how such histories can help us reshape pressing ethical and political questions today. For instance, in my first book, The Political Clinic (Columbia UP, 2024), I turn to the psychoanalytic clinic to explore how, across the 20th century, psychoanalysts became formidable political actors through their clinical practice, where they implicitly transformed the privatized space of the clinic into a proto-political laboratory for reimagining pressing political concepts like authority, reparation, boundaries, communism, and security. By delving into case studies from across Britain and its former colonies, this book combines history with feminist and decolonial social theory to challenge the longstanding characterization of the clinic as neutral and apolitical, recasting it as a productive site for novel political thought, theorization, and action. This work has won a number of professional recognitions, including: The 2025 Book Prize of the American Psychoanalytic Association; The 2025 Book Award of the British Psychological Society; and the Shortlist for the Gradiva Award. As with this book, the majority of my scholarship tends to be interested in the specifically clinical histories, legacies, and extensions of the "psy" sciences. For instance, I have written about Freud, autotheory, and the clinical-qua-literary invention of the "plural self"; about co-developed 20th century psychological and political conceptions of reparation; about art and imperialism in the wartime psychoanalytic clinic; about Melanie Klein's theories of creativity, femininity, and aesthetics; and about the triangulation of agency, sexual difference, and the gaze in 19th century scientific narratives of Freud and Darwin. I also enjoy translating these interests for wider, public audiences beyond academia and have written articles for The Conversation (on Freud, AI, and Authoritarianism) and The Psychologist (on reparation), along with media appearances and interviews for BBC Radio 4 and the History Hit Podcast Betwixt the Sheets, among others. Currently, I am working on two new projects. The first is a commissioned new edition of Oxford UP’s Very Short Introduction to Freud (in press; expected March 2027), which will be a timely and accessible work of public humanities scholarship designed to explain Freud's relevance to a 21st century audience. The second is a special issue of Psychoanalysis & History entitled "Trans-Analytics: Psychoanalysis, Gender, and History" (forthcoming Dec 2026) that will explore the pressing intersections, gaps, and discords that have long characterized the relationship between transgender experience and psychoanalytic theory and practice, globally conceived. At Essex, I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on psychoanalytic history and theory; feminist, queer, and trans theory; and 20th century literature and film. When it comes to supervision, I welcome prospective PhD students whose research focuses on any of the following areas of specialization: • Global Psychoanalytic History • Feminist, Queer, and Trans Theory •Radical Politics & The Clinic • Generationality & Intergenerational Relationships • Psychosocial approaches to Gender and Sexuality • Post/Decolonial Theory • Psychoanalysis, Literature, and Film All inquiries about PhD supervision should include a CV as well as a 5000-word (or so) project proposal, inclusive of: a description of the intended project & its intervention; a literature review; a methodology (where applicable); and a bibliography.

Qualifications

• PhD Duke University,

Appointments

University of Essex

• Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer), Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex (1/10/2020 - present)

• Programme Director, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Essex (1/8/2022 - present)

• Assistant Professor (Lecturer), Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex (1/8/2018 - 1/10/2020)

Other academic

• Adjunct Instructor, The Program in Literature, Duke University (1/8/2017 - 31/5/2018)