Dr Emma Whatman

Dr Emma Whatman is a Research Fellow and Sessional Academic in Gender and Sexuality Studies and Children's Literature. Her research focuses on postfeminism, contemporary feminism, young people, and sex education. Emma has teaching expertise in gender and sexuality studies, children's literature, cultural studies, and digital media.

Emma completed her PhD in 2019, winning the Alfred Deakin Medal for best university thesis. Through analysis of cultural texts, her thesis argued that postfeminism and neoliberal feminism are the primary modes of feminism introduced to young people. This research is the basis of her first monograph, currently under contract with Wayne State University Press (2023).

Contemporary Feminism

Postfeminism

Feminist History

Contemporary Children's Literature and Culture

Fairy Tales

Consent and Sex Education

Social and Digital Media 

Australian Women's and Gender Studies Association (AWGSA)

Australasian Children's Literature Association for Research (ACLAR)

Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL)

Feminism

Gender and Sexuality studies

Children's Literature

Cultural Studies 

Digital media and social media

ALL153: Literature for Children and Young Adults

ALL154: Power Politics and Texts for Young People

ALL326: Gender Sexuality and Texts for Young People

ALL701: Retelling Myths and Tales: Classic to Contemporary

AGS101: Sex and Gender: Ideas that Changed the World

AGS102: Histories of Sex and Gender

AGS200: Cultural Studies of Sex and Gender

ACC100: Communication in Everyday Life

ALM101: Making Social Media 

ALC203: Exploring Digital Media: Contexts of Online Participation 

ALC205: Digital Media and the Surveillance Society

ALC701: Social Media Principles and Practices

ALC708 - Blogging and Online Communication Techniques

AIS204: Gender, Globalisation and Development

Feminism

Gender and sexuality studies

Sex Education

Contemporary children's literature

Fairy-tale studies

Digital media and social media

Conferences Convened

“Postgraduate/ECR Symposium: Imagining New Futures?: Provocations in Gender and Sexuality Studies”, Deakin University, Melbourne, November 2021. With Gilbert Caluya, Jack Kirne and Daniel Marshall. 

“Body of Knowledge: Art and Embodied Cognition Conference”, Deakin University, Melbourne, June 2019. With Jondi Keane, Rea Dennis and Scott deLahunta.

Australian Women and Gender Studies Association biennial conference: “Queer Legacies and New Solidarities”, Deakin University, Melbourne, November 2019. With Ann Vickery and Daniel Marshall.

Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research biennial conference: “Shifting Landscapes: Diversity, Text and Young People”, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, July, 2016. With Mark Macleod.

Selected conferences presentations:

2022 with Hannah Garden ‘“Clementine Ford and the ongoing celebrification of mainstream Australian feminism’, Cultural Studies Association of Australasia annual conference: ‘30th Anniversary’, RMIT University, Melbourne.

2022 ‘Feminist Baby? Didactic feminist picture books for young people’, Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Association biannual conference: ‘Activist Energies’, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne.

2021 'Milkshakes, tacos and shark-infested waters: The future of consent and sex education for young people’, Deakin Postgraduate/ECR Symposium: ‘Imagining New Futures?: Provocations in Gender and Sexuality Studies’, Deakin University, Melbourne.

2021 with Hannah Garden. ‘“Dump him” and “Leave your husband”: White Instagram Influencer Feminism’, Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Association biannual conference: Unknowing’ Institutions: Decolonisation and Critical Intersectional Practice, Flinders University, Adelaide.

2019 ‘Breaking the silence: Fairy-tale webcomics as sites for subversion’. International Research Society for Children’s Literature (IRSCL) biennial conference: Silence and Silencing in Children’s Literature, The Swedish Institute for Children's Books, Sweden. 

2018 ‘Postfeminism in contemporary fairy-tale adaptations for young women’. Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research biennial conference: Houses of Learning: Education in Children’s Literature and Children’s Literature as Education, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, June. 

2017 ‘“A Girl. A Machine. A Freak”: Feminism, cyborg subjectivity and fairy-tale adaptation in Marissa Meyer’s The Lunar Chronicles’. Re-Orienting the Fairy Tale: Contemporary Fairy-Tale Adaptations across Cultures, Kanagawa University, Yokohama, Japan, March.

2015 ‘Playing Pretty: Fairy Tales, Beauty Ideals, and Interactive Media’. International Research Society for Children’s Literature (IRSCL) biennial conference: Creating Childhoods, University of Worcester, Worcester, United Kingdom, August.

2013 ‘Divas or Dudes?: Multiple Masculinities in Glee’. International Research Society for Children’s Literature (IRSCL) biennial conference: Children’s literature and media cultures, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands, August.

2012 ‘Transgressing Boundaries: Liminality and the mother-daughter relationship within Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s Mirrormask’. Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research biennial conference: If We’re Being Honest: The Facts and Fictions of Children’s Literature, National Library of Australia, Canberra ACT, June.

Executive Committee Member, Australian Women's and Gender Studies Association (AWGSA)

Executive Committee Member, Australasian Children's Literature Association for Research (ACLAR)

2020: Alfred Deakin Medal for Doctoral Thesis

2020: Deakin University Excellence in Teaching

2019: Deakin University Excellence in Teaching

2018: Deakin University Excellence in Teaching

2018: Monash University Excellent in Teaching

2017: Association for the Study of Australian Literature postgraduate travel bursary  ($500)

2017: Japan Foundation of the Arts postgraduate travel bursary ($1700)