Professor Mary Louise Rasmussen
Areas of expertise
- Gender, Sexuality And Education 130308
- Sociology 1608
- Culture, Gender, Sexuality 200205
- Feminist And Queer Theory 440501
- Sexualities 440506
- Social Change 441004
Research interests
Feminist theories and gender studies; Queer theory and queer studies; Gender, sexuality and education; Social and cultural studies of health and wellbeing; Young people and sexuality; Queer Archives; Reproduction and climate crisis; Australian sexual publics.
My book with Celia Roberts, Louisa Allen and Rebecca Williamson, Reproduction, Kin and Climate Crisis: Making Bushfire Babies, (Bristol University Press, forthcoming) is based on research into the 2019-20 bushfires in South Eastern Australia.
While the forthcoming (Bloomsbury), Queer Generations: LGBTQ Growing up, Belonging and Sexual Citizenship, presents the experiences of two social generations of LGBTQ people in Australia (those born in the 1970s and those born in the 1990s) as they navigate a period of unprecedented social and political transformation. It draws on compelling narrative accounts and rich historical data to advance new theoretical perspectives on belonging and sexual citizenship.
Biography
Professor Mary Lou Rasmussen has undertaken research in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Her research focuses on building transdisciplinary understanding of sexuality and gender across diverse lifeworlds, taking account of issues related to sexual citizenship, cultural and religious difference and technologies of sexuality, education and health. She is co-editor, with Louisa Allen, of the Handbook of Sexuality Education (Palgrave).
Researcher's projects
Queer Generations: Belong and sexual citizenship among gender and sexual minority youth.
Past student projects
The following students have completed research projects under my supervision.
PhD (ANU University Students)
Simon Copland - Reddit, The Manosphere and The Male Complaint (co-supervisor with Robert Ackland and Timothy Graham QUT)
Kerry Simple - Camp Studies, and Queer Theory, and drag queens, oh my! Camping the academy, queer methods, and the potentiality of camp
(co-supervisor with Celia Roberts & Maria Hynes)
PhD (Monash University Students)
Linnette Etheredge
Exploring the intimate experiences of young people aged 11-14 through creative filmmaking.
(Deana Leahy and Sue Griesharber Primary Supervisors)
Brian Jeganathan - Awarded 2019
Cultural Worker As "Horizontal Intellectual" In A Militarized Postcolonial Site: Jacques
Ranciere's "Equality Of Intelligence" (Co-supervisor with Jennifer Bleazby)
Megan McPherson — Awarded 2018
Subjectivity, agency and affect in the undergraduate
university art studio crit (Co-supervisor with Anne Harris)
Genevieve Hall — Awarded 2018
Being, becoming and belonging as a human rights activist
(Associate supervisor with Libby Tudball)
Melissa Joy Wolfe — Awarded 2016
Girls' tales: experiences of schooling (Co-supervisor with Iris Duhn)
John Haycock — Awarded 2015
Revolution rock: A study of a public pedagogy of protest music (Associate-supervisor Emily Gray – RMIT)
Corinna Peterken — Awarded 2015
Knowing in the making: Becoming-artist/academic with an inquiry into child art pedagogy (Co-supervisor with Jane Bone)
Emma Rowe — Awarded 2015
Geo-identity, school choice and collective campaigns for local public schools (Co-supervisor with Scott Bulfin)
Genine Hook – Awarded 2015
Gender, agency and the engagement of sole parent postgraduates in the Australian academy (Clare Hall – Associate Supervisor)
Cate Smith — Awarded 2014
The dominance of conservative Protestant values in an American small town: Institutional continuity between home, church and school (Co-supervisor with Joel Windle)
Kellie Sanders — Awarded 2013
Picturing Footballing Bodies: Gender, Homosociality and Sportscapes
Annette Bromdal — Awarded 2013
The Phantom Category of 'Intersex' in Elite Sports: Knowledge about 'Disturbing' Female Bodies and Athletic Performances
Vikki Pollard — Awarded 2009
Altruism in teaching: towards a critical ontology of altruism
Recipient of Faculty of Education Postgraduate Publication Award
Claire Charles — Awarded 2009
Knowing girls: ‘objectification’, ‘girl power’ and ‘girls’ resistance’ at school
Recipient of Faculty of Education Postgraduate Publication Award
Karen Lambert — Awarded 2006
Place, sexualities and community
(Co-supervisors Prof Jan Wright & Dr Valerie Harwood - University of Wollongong)
EdD (Monash)
Bruce Fox — Awarded 2015
City as School: Learning Beyond the Classroom
Honours (ANU and Monash)
Lawrence Baker - Awarded 2023
(First Class) ‘Housing Matters: Temporality, Materiality and (Re)making in the Share House
Brock Manson - Awarded 2021
(First Class) Change the story, Queer the story:Tracing the recognition of LGBTQI
relationships in Australian intimate partner violence policy
Alistair Thomson - Awarded 2020
Possibilities and Practices Among Parents of Young Children that Both Work
Phoebe Cook - Awarded 2020
Secrets, Silences, and Spectres in the Enforcement of the Dispositif of Sexting in Australia’
Gabriela Falzon - Awarded 2019
CFMEU Women: Constructing Gender at Work
Natasha Dubler - Awarded 2018
Agential Listening and the Sounwalk
Nida Mollison — Awarded 2017
(First Class) Watching Transparent: Politics and Televisual Methodology
Genine Hook — Awarded 2010
(First Class) Teaching Australian Indigenous Studies on the other side of the Rabbit Proof Fence
Adrian Farrugia — Awarded 2012
(First Class) From Distress to Psychosis: Mapping the Rhizome of Australian Harm Reduction Drug Education
Theses Examined
Adriana Haro, Disidentifying Masculinities: Queer Latinx Embodiment in Australia, University of Newcastle, PhD Thesis (2022)
Jan Filmer, Infrastructures of Intimacy: Queer (re)configurations of cultural space, University of Sydney, PhD Thesis (2020)
Ruby Grant, Society and Culture, University of Tasmania — The Queer Sexual Citizen: Bisexual and Queer Young Women’s Sexual Health in Tasmania, PhD Thesis (August, 2018)
Justine Hotten, School of Justice, The negotiation of sexual consent between same-sex attracted women, PhD Thesis (October, 2017)
Aoife Neary, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Teachers and civil partnership in ireland: Ambivalent promises of legitimacy, PhD Thesis (August, 2014)
Kyra Clarke, Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Western Australia, “Getting Messy: Exploring Intimate Pedagogical Moments in Film and Television”, PhD Thesis. (June, 2014)
Fiona McLachlan, School of Physical Education, University of Otago, “Poolspace: The plight of public swimming pools”, PhD Thesis. (Feb, 2012)
Christina Gowlett, School of Education, University of Queensland. “SUBJECTification: An examination of senior subject selection at a ‘disadvantaged’ secondary school”. PhD Thesis. (Dec, 2011)
Leopoldyna McGee, School of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Tasmania. “Becoming Girl: The Subversive Narratives of Le Girl Sujet en Process/On Trial”, PhD Thesis (May, 2009)
Kellie Burns, School of Physical Education, University of Otago, “Blood, Sweat and Queers: (re) imagining global queer citizenship at the Sydney 2002 gay games”, PhD Thesis. (Oct, 2007)
Publications
- Bromdal, A & Rasmussen, M 2022, ''Eligibility regulations for the female classification': somatechnics, women's bodies, and elite sport', International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 239-254.
- Rasmussen, M, Burke, K & Greteman, A 2022, 'Secularisms, sexualities and theology', Sex Education, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 1-6.
- Southerton, C, Marshall, D, Aggleton, P et al. 2021, 'Restricted modes: Social media, content classification and LGBTQ sexual citizenship', New Media and Society, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 920-938.
- Lyons, A, Rasmussen, M, Anderson, J et al. 2021, 'Counting gender and sexual identity in the Australian census', Australian Population Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 40-48.
- Newman, C, Prankumar, S, Cover, R et al. 2020, 'Inclusive health care for LGBTQ+ youth: support, belonging, and inclusivity labour', Critical Public Health. 31(4), 441-450.
- Halafoff, A, Shipley, H, Young, P et al. 2020, 'Complex, Critical and Caring: Young People�s Diverse Religious, Spiritual and Non-Religious Worldviews in Australia and Canada', Religions, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. -.
- Cover, R, Rasmussen, M, Newman, C et al. 2020, 'Marriage Equality: Two Generations of Gender and Sexually Diverse Australians', Australian Feminist Studies, vol. 35, no. 103, pp. 37-53.
- Lyons, A, Anderson, J, Rasmussen, M et al. 2020, 'Toward making sexual and gender diverse populations count in Australia', Australian Population Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 14-29.
- Rasmussen, M, Southerton, C, Fela, G et al. 2020, 'Playing Recognition Politics: Queer Theoretical Reflections on Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Youth Social Policy in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s', Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 49, no. 7, pp. 2341-2352.
- Neary, A & Rasmussen, M 2020, 'Marriage Equality Time: Entanglements of sexual progress and childhood innocence in Irish primary schools', Sexualities, vol. 23, no. 5-6, pp. 898-916.
- Persson, A, Newman, C, Rasmussen, M et al. 2020, 'Queerying Notions of "Difference" Among Two Generations of Australians Who Do Not Identify Heteronormatively', Sexuality and Culture, vol. 24, pp. 54-71.
- Rasmussen, M, Carroll, K, Evans, A et al 2020, 'Researching Young Men and Family Formation: Two Stories, DOI: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1097184X19895298, Men and Masculinities.
- Rasmussen, M, Graefenstein, S, Singleton, A et al. 2020, 'Methodological challenges of designing a survey to capture young people's (non-binary) affiliations in relationship to religion, sexuality and gender', International Journal of Social Research Methodology.
- Cover, R, Aggleton, P, Rasmussen, M et al. 2019, 'The myth of LGBTQ mobilities: framing the lives of gender- and sexually diverse Australians between regional and urban contexts', Culture, Health and Sexuality, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 321-335.
- Rasmussen, M 2019, 'Continuing with Concepts: Categorical Imaginings and Possibilities for Reinvention', in (ed.), Starting with Gender in International Higher Education Research, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, New York, pp. 231-240.
- Halafoff, A, Singleton, A, Bouma, G et al. 2019, 'Religious literacy of Australia's Gen Z teens: diversity and social inclusion', Journal of Beliefs and Values, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 195-213.
- Rasmussen, M & Neary, A 2019, 'Robot Babies, Young People, and Pregnancy Prevention: Alternative Imaginings of Sexual Futures', in (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Sexual Development, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 559-574.
- Aggleton, P, Aggleton, P, Cover, R et al., eds, 2019, Youth, Sexuality and Sexual Citizenship, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, England.
- Marshall, D, Aggleton, P, Cover, R et al. 2019, 'Queer generations: Theorizing a concept', International Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 558-576.
- Rasmussen, M & Leahy, D 2018, 'Young People, Publics, and Counterpublics in School-based Education on Gender and Sexuality: An Australian Story', in Susan Talburt (ed.), Youth Sexualities: Public Feelings and Contemporary Cultural Politics, Praeger Publishers, Santa Barbara CA USA, pp. 61-81.
- Hegarty, B, Marshall, D, Rasmussen, M et al. 2018, 'Heterosexuality and Race in the Australian Same-Sex Marriage Postal Survey', Australian Feminist Studies, vol. 33, no. 97, pp. 400-416.
- Allen, L, Rasmussen, M & Quinlivan , K, eds, 2018, The Politics of Pleasure in Sexuality Education: Pleasure Bound, Routledge, New York, USA.
- Wolfe, M & Rasmussen, M 2018, 'Girls' tales: Experiences of schooling: Making a re/active documentary film', in David Kember, Michael Corbett (ed.), Structuring the Thesis: Matching Method, Paradigm, Theories and Findings, Springer, Singapore, pp. 329-337.
- Aggleton, P, Prankumar, S, Cover, R et al. 2018, 'Youth, sexuality and sexual citizenship: An introduction', in (ed.), Youth, sexuality and sexual citizenship: An introduction, Routledge, London, pp. 1-16.
- Hegarty, B, Marshall, D, Rasmussen, M et al. 2018, 'Heterosexuality and Race in the Australian Same-Sex Marriage Postal Survey', Australian Feminist Studies, vol. 33, no. 97, pp. 400-416.
- Rasmussen, M 2017, 'The Role of Theory in Research', in D Wyse, N Selwyn, E Smith & L E Suter (ed.), The BERA/SAGE Handbook of Educational Research, SAGE Publications Ltd, London, pp. 53-71.
- Bromdal, A, Rasmussen, M, Sanjakdar, F et al. 2017, 'Intersex Bodies in Sexuality Education On the Edge of Cultural Difference', in Louisa Allen, Mary Lou Rasmussen (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of Sexualities Education, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, pp. 369-390pp.
- Rasmussen, M 2017, 'Critical exchange: Religion and schooling: What should their relationship be?', Research in Education, vol. 97, no. 1, pp. 4-15pp..
- Cover, R, Rasmussen, M, Aggleton, P et al. 2017, 'Progress in question the temporalities of politics support and belonging in gender-and sexually-diverse pedagogies', Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, vol. 31, no. 6.
- Rasmussen, M, Cover, R & Aggleton, P 2017, 'Palgrave International Handbook of Education for Citizenship and Social Justice', in (ed.), Palgrave International Handbook of Education for Citizenship and Social Justice, Palgrave Macmillan, UK, pp. 73-96.
- Copland, S & Rasmussen, M 2017, 'Safe Schools, Marriage Equality and LGBT Youth Suicide', in Tiffany Jones (ed.), Bent Street 1 '2017', Clouds of Magellan, Melbourne, pp. 90-97.
- Rasmussen, M, Sanjakdar, F, Allen, L et al. 2017, 'Homophobia, transphobia, young people and the question of responsibility', Discourse, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 30-42.
- Rasmussen, M 2017, 'Critical exchange: Peculiar bedfellows - Gender, sexuality, religion and schooling: A reply to Stern', Research in Education, vol. 97, no. 1, pp. 27-29 pp.
- Gowlett, C & Rasmussen, M, eds, 2016, The Cultural Politics of Queer Theory in Education Research, Routledge, New York.
- Rasmussen, M 2016, 'What's the place of queer theory in studies of gender, sexuality, and education on the periphery?', The Review of Education-Pedagogy-Cultural Studies, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 73-84.
- Rasmussen, M 2016, 'Faith, Progressive Sexuality Education, and Queer Secularism: Unsettling Associations', in Louisa Allen et al. (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, pp. 115 - 135pp.
- Allen, L & Rasmussen, M 2016, 'Introduction to the Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education', in Louisa Allen et al. (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, pp. 1-13pp.
- Rasmussen, M 2016, Progressive Sexuality Education: The Conceits of Secularism, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York.
- Allen, L & Rasmussen, M, eds, 2016, Palgrave Handbook of Sexualities Education, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
- Rasmussen, M, Cover, R, Aggleton, P et al 2016, 'Sexuality Gender Citizenship and Social Justice: Education's Queer Relations', in (ed.), Palgrave International Handbook of Education for Citizenship and Social Justice, Palgrave Macmillan, UK, pp. 73-96pp.
- Rasmussen, M, Cover, R, Aggleton, P et al. 2016, 'Sexuality, Gender, Citizenship and Social Justice: Education's Queer Relations', in (ed.), Palgrave International Handbook of Education for Citizenship and Social Justice, Palgrave Macmillan, UK, pp. 73-96.
- Rasmussen, M 2015, 'Sex education, bodily orientations and the Northern Territory 'intervention'', in Stuart R. Poyntz, Jacqueline Kennelly (ed.), Phenomenology of Youth Cultures and Globalization: Lifeworlds and Surplus Meaning in Changing Times, Routledge, USA, pp. 183-211pp.
- Rasmussen, M 2015, 'Queer Theory', in P Whelehan, A Bolin (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality, Wiley Blackwell, United States of America.
- Rasmussen, M & Gowlett, C 2015, 'Queer theory, policy and education', in Matthew Clarke, Kalervo N. Gulson, Eva Bendix Petersen (ed.), Education Policy and Contemporary Theory: Implications for research, Routledge, New York, pp. 195-207pp.
- Allen, L & Rasmussen, M 2015, 'Queer conversation in straight spaces an interview with Mary Lou Rasmussen about queer theory in higher education', Higher Education Research and Development, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 685-694pp.
- Rasmussen, M 2015, 'Sexualities and education in Australia: Which way forward?', Curriculum Perspectives, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 51-53.
- Davis, M & Rasmussen, M 2015, 'Sex, Health and the Technological Imagination', Culture, Health and Sexuality, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 393-397.
- Rasmussen, M 2015, ''Cruel Optimism' and Contemporary Australian Critical Theory in Educational Research', Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 192-206.
- Sanjakdar, F, Allen, L, Rasmussen, M et al. 2015, 'In Search of Critical Pedagogy in Sexuality Education: Visions, Imaginations, and Paradoxes', The Review of Education-Pedagogy-Cultural Studies, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 53-70.
- Quinlivan , K, Rasmussen, M, Aspin, C et al. 2014, 'Crafting the normative subject: queerying the politics of race in the New Zealand Health education classroom', Discourse, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 393-404.
- Gowlett, C & Rasmussen, M 2014, 'The cultural politics of queer theory in education research', Discourse, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 331-334.
- Allen, L, Quinlivan , K, Aspin, C et al. 2014, 'Meeting at the crossroads: Re-conceptualising difference in research teams', Qualitative Research Journal, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 119-133.
- Allen, L, Rasmussen, M, Quinlivan , K et al. 2014, 'Who's afraid of sex at school? The politics of researching culture, religion and sexuality at school', International Journal of Research and Method in Education, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 31-43.
- Rasmussen, M & Allen, L 2014, 'What can a concept do? Rethinking education's queer assemblages', Discourse, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 433-443.
- Allen, L, Rasmussen, M & Quinlivan , K, eds, 2014, The Politics of Pleasure in Sexuality Education: Pleasure Bound, Routledge, New York, USA.
- Allen, L, Rasmussen, M & Quinlivan , K 2014, 'After-Word(s) Engaging with the politics of pleasure in Sexuality Education: Affordances and Provocations', in L Allen, M L Rasmussen & K Quinlivan (ed.), The Politics of Pleasure in Sexuality Education: Pleasure Bound, Routledge, New York, USA, pp. 186-194pp.
- Rasmussen, M 2014, 'Pleasure/Desire, Sexularism and Sexuality Education', in L Allen, M L Rasmussen & K Quinlivan (ed.), The Politics of Pleasure in Sexuality Education: Pleasure Bound, Routledge, New York, USA, pp. 153-168pp.
- Meyer, E, Carlson, D & Rasmussen, M 2014, 'Taking Homophobia's Measure', in Carlson D Meyer (ed.), Gender and Sexualities in Education: A Reader, Peter Lang AG, US.
- Rasmussen, M 2013, 'Taking homophobia's measure', Confero, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 16-45.
- Harwood, V & Rasmussen, M 2013, 'Practising Critique, Attending to Truth: The pedagogy of discriminatory speech', Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 45, no. 8, pp. 874-884.
- Marshall, D & Rasmussen, M 2013, 'Performing an intervention INTRODUCTION', Sex Education, vol. 13, pp. S1-S6.
- Rasmussen, M 2012, 'Pleasure/desire, sexularism and sexuality education', Sex Education, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 469-481.
- Rasmussen, M 2011, 'No Outsiders and "the eternal sunshine of the spotless child"', Journal of LGBT Youth, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 210-214.
- Rasmussen, M 2011, 'Sex Education', in Nancy Lesko Susan Talburt (ed.), Keywords in Youth Studies Tracing Affects, Movements, Knowledges, Routledge, US.
- Rasmussen, M 2010, 'Revisiting moral panics in sexuality education', Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, vol. 135, no. 135, pp. 118-130.
- Crowley, V & Rasmussen, M 2010, 'After dark in the Antipodes: pedagogy, place and queer phenomenology', International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 15-32.
- Talburt, S & Rasmussen, M 2010, ''After-queer' tendencies in queer research', International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 1-14.
- Rasmussen, M 2010, 'Secularism, religion and 'progressive' sex education', Sexualities, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 699-712.
- Rasmussen, M 2009, 'Book Review: Get real about sex: the politics and practice of sex education, by Pam Alldred and Miriam E. David', Gender and Education, vol. 211, pp. 475-477.
- Rasmussen, M 2009, 'Beyond gender identity?', Gender and Education, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 431-447.
- Rasmussen, M & Harwood, V 2009, 'Young people, education and unlawful non-citizenship: spectral sovereignty and governmentality in Australia', Globalisation, Societies and Education, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 5-22.
- Gulson, K & Rasmussen, M 2008, 'Book Review: Impossible Bodies, Impossible Selves:exclusions and student subjectivities, Deborah Youdell', Policy Futures in Education, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 363-367.
- Rasmussen, M 2007, Prescriptions for sex and gender in school architecture, pp. 17-22pp.
- Harwood, V & Rasmussen, M 2007, 'Scrutinizing sexuality and psychopathology: a Foucauldian inspired strategy for qualitative data analysis', International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 31-50.
- Rasmussen, M 2006, 'Play School, melancholia, and the politics of recognition', British Journal of Sociology of Education, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 473-487.
- Rasmussen, M 2004, '"That's So Gay!": A Study of the Deployment of Signifiers of Sexual and Gender Identity in Secondary School Settings in Australia and the United States', Social Semiotics, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 289-308.
- Rasmussen, M & Kenway, J 2004, 'Queering the Youthful Cyberflâneur', Journal of Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 47-63.
- Rasmussen, M 2004, 'The Problem of Coming Out', Theory into Practice, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 144-150.
- Rasmussen, M 2004, 'Wounded Identities, Sex and Pleasure:"Doing it'' at School. NOT!', Discourse, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 445-458.
- Rasmussen, M & Harwood, V 2003, 'Performativity, Youth and Injurious Speech', Teaching Education, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 25-36.
- Rasmussen, M 2001, 'Queering Schools and Dangerous Knowledges: some new directions in sexualities, pedagogies and schooling', Discourse, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 263-272.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Locating LGBTIQ youth in the Australian archive: telling new stories for belonging. (Secondary Investigator)
- Belonging and sexual citizenship among gender and sexual minority youth (Secondary Investigator)
- Young Australians' perspectives on religions and non-religious worldviews (Primary Investigator)