Dr Karen Cuthbert

Research Associate

Location: University of Sheffield, Sociological Studies

I work within and across both gender and sexualities studies, although my interests are inherently intersectional. In the past, I’ve looked at the ways in which sexuality intersects with disability, and have been involved in research projects on sexuality and migration such as ‘Intimate migrations: LGBT migrants in Scotland’, and on the intersection of sexuality, religion, and youth such as ‘Making space for queer-identifying religious youth’.

I have a long-standing interest in asexuality (and forms of ‘non’ sexualities more broadly, such as celibacy and sexual abstinence). My PhD explored how asexuality and sexual abstinence are particularly gendered ‘constructs’, as well as how asexual and abstinent identifying people themselves lived and experienced gender. This research also spoke to broader debates within feminist theory and queer and LGBT+ studies on the inter-relationship between ‘gender’ and ‘sexuality’.

My work has been published in the journals Sociology, Educational Review, Sexualities, Gender & Society, Qualitative Research and elsewhere.