Associate Professor Lucy Nicholas
Pronouns: They/Them
Associate Professor Nicholas directs the genders and sexualities research grouping at WSU. They have interests across gender theory, feminisms, whiteness, and social theory. Their research has two streams: gender and sexual diversity including non-binary and queer ethics; and men and masculinsm, including men's use of violence, its intersection with radicalisation, anti-feminism backlash and men's behaviour change.
They are currently working on the following projects: Interventions for young men and boys (16-25) who use intimate partner violence; a collaborative international sociological comparison on-binary gender identity; evaluation of men's behaviour change programs; gender and sexuality diverse inclusion in workplaces and medical education; and young people's perceptions of porn.
Before joining WSU they were coordinator of Sociology at Swinburne University where they also directed the Melbourne Gender, Queer, and Feminist Research Network, and lecturer of Sociology at Portsmouth University. They serve on the WSU ethics committee, ACON ethics committee, and the Vice Chancellor’s Gender Equity and Respectful Relationships Advisory Committee. They regularly engage in media about gender issues, and speak at academic and other professional events.
Qualifications
- 2012 PhD University of Edinburgh
- 2008 MPhil Griffith University
- 2001 BA(Hons) University of Gloucestershire
Areas of Research
- Gender and sexuality diversity
- Non-binary and genderqueer
- Masculinism
- Men's violence
- Whiteness
- Backlash
Recent Awards and Recognition
- 2017. Vice Chancellor’s Research Excellence (Early Career) Award, Swinburne University.
- 2016. Special Commendation, Raewyn Connell prize for the best first book in Sociology, The Australian Sociological Association
- 2015. Office of Learning and Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning: ‘For creating an enabling, culturally diverse and engaging introduction to university culture and skills for non-traditional online social science university students’
Selected Publications
Nicholas, L & Agius, C 2018, The Persistence of Global Masculinism: Discourse, Gender, and Neocolonial Rearticulations of Violence, Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke.
Nicholas, L 2014 Queer Post-Gender Ethics: The Shape of Selves to Come, Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke.
Nicholas, L, & Clark, S, 2023, 'Gender, Sex and Freedom: Testing the Theoretical Limits of the 21st-Century “Gender Wars” with Simone De Beauvoir, Shulamith Firestone and Luce Irigaray', Paragraph: A Journal of Modern Critical Theory, vol.46, no.3, pp.354-371.
Tran, D, Sullivan, C, & Nicholas, L, 2023,’ Lateral Violence and Microaggressions in the LGBTQ+ Community: A Scoping Review’, Journal of Homosexuality, vol.70, no.7, pp.1310-1324
Agius, C, Edney-Brown, A, Nicholas, L, Cook, K, 2022, ‘Anti-feminism, gender and the far-right gap in C/PVE measures’, Critical Studies in Terrorism, vol.15, no.3, pp. 681-705.
Storr, R, Nicholas, L, Robinson, K, Davies, C, 2022, ‘“Game to Play?”: Barriers and facilitators to same sex attracted and gender diverse young people’s participation in sport and physical activity’, Sport, Education and Society, vol.27, no.5, pp. 604-617.
Nicholas, L, 2021, ‘Remembering Simone de Beauvoir’s “ethics of ambiguity” to challenge contemporary divides: Feminism beyond both sex and gender’ Feminist Theory, vol. 22, no.2, pp. 226-247.
Nicholas, L, 2020, ‘Whiteness, heteropaternalism and the gendered politics of settler colonial populist backlash culture in Australia’ Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society, vol.27, no.2, pp.234-257.
Nicholas, L, 2019, ‘Queer Ethics and Fostering Positive Mindsets towards Non-Binary Gender, Genderqueer and Gender Ambiguity’, International Journal of Transgenderism, vol.20, no.2-3, pp. 169-180.
Agius, C, Cook, K, Nicholas, L. Ahmed, A. Jehangir H, Safa, N, Hardwick, T, & Clark, S, 2020, Mapping Right Wing Extremism in Victoria: Applying a Gender Lens to Develop Prevention and Deradicalisation Approaches. Melbourne: Victorian Government, Department of Justice and Community Safety: Countering Violent Extremism Unit and Swinburne University of Technology.
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