Dr Tanya Serisier

Overview

Biography

Tanya Serisier joined Birkbeck as a Lecturer in Criminology in 2016. Her research explores the cultural politics of sexuality and sexual violence from a feminist and queer perspective. She has published widely on feminism, sexual assault and survivor politics, including in her critically acclaimed 2018 book, Speaking Out: Feminism, Rape and Narrative Politics. Her current research examines conceptions of sexual pleasure and danger under neoliberalism, with a particular focus on the cultural politics of sexual consent.

Tanya completed her PhD in Cultural Studies at Monash University (Australia) in 2010. The PhD,Scheherazade’s Daughters: Telling Stories in Response to Sexual Violence explored feminist practices of speaking out through the use of feminist and literary theory. She taught at a number of Australian universities from 2010-2012, taking up a Lectureship in Criminology at UNSW in 2013. From 2014-2016 she was employed as a Lecturer in Criminology at Queen’s University Belfast before moving to her present post at Birkbeck.

Tanya was the Vice President of the Australasian Women’s and Gender Studies Association from 2012-14. She is a founding co-convenor of the Commercial Sex Research Network Ireland (North and South), formed in 2015 and, as of 2014, is an ESRC peer review college member.

Highlights

Author of Speaking Out: Rape, Feminism and Narrative Politics, 2018, Palgrave Macmillan
Sexual deviance in prison: Queering identity and intimacy in prison research, Criminology and Criminal Justice, June 2020
Complex Back Stories: Feminism, Survivor Politics and Trans Rights, Critical Legal Thinking blog, June 2020

Qualifications

PhD, Monash University, Australia, 2010

Web profiles

Administrative responsibilities

Assistant Dean Equalities - School of Law
Programme Director - MSc Criminology and Criminal Justice

Research

Research interests

Feminist, Queer and Narrative Theory
Cultural and Political Responses to Sexual Violence
Cultural Politics of Sex and Sexuality

Research overview

Dr Tanya Serisier's work focuses on the cultural politics of sexuality and of sexual and gendered violence. I am interested in feminist anti-rape politics, cultural responses to rape survivor narratives, constructions of sexual safety and danger in popular culture, and cultural representations of sex work. Her interests are interdisciplinary, drawing on a number of areas: feminist and queer theory, critical race and postcolonial theory, literary and popular cultural studies, narrative analysis, and the intersection of legal theory with literature and popular culture. Her work engages with politically urgent questions about cultural responses to and prevention of sexual violence, adopting a critical lens to interrogate dominant feminist responses.

Dr Tanya Serisier is the author of Speaking Out: Rape, Feminism and Narrative Politics, an exploration of the history and politics of women's testimony as a central feature of feminist responses to violence. This work is part of her ongoing interest in the intersections of feminist and narrative theory, and a continuing interest in survivor discourse and politics.

My current work includes a number of projects. I am involved in projects exploring the regulation of sex and sexuality in the Criminal Justice System, particularly prisons. I am working on a project on neoliberal constructions of sexual pleasure and risk, with a particular focus on the cultural politics of consent. Finally, I am involved in a project looking at the appeal of true crime, focusing on true crime podcasts.

Research Centres and Institutes

Steering Committee Member, Birkbeck Institute for Gender and Sexuality Studies
Member, Centre for Law and the Humanities

Research clusters and groups

Member, Critical Legal and Criminological Theory Research Cluster
Member, Law and Humanities Research Cluster
Member, Race, Gender and Culture Research Cluster

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions within Birkbeck:: 5

I welcome enquiries from students interested in any area of my research. In particular, I welcome students interested in exploring sexual violence or the regulation of sexuality from a critical and/or interdisciplinary perspective, and students who are interested in the intersections of deviance, harm and punishment with popular culture.

Current doctoral researchers

ELENI PAPAKONSTANTINOU

Nature of supervision:
Joint Principal Supervisor, Jan 2020 onwards
GABRIELLA MCGROGAN

Nature of supervision:
Joint Principal Supervisor, Oct 2018 onwards
MOLLY ACKHURST

Nature of supervision:
Joint Principal Supervisor, Oct 2019 onwards
NADEEM SAEED

Nature of supervision:
Joint Principal Supervisor, Oct 2019 onwards

Title of thesis:
Rape cases: Is the criminal justice system failing complainants on their right to privacy?Striking a balance between the right to fair trial and the right to private life seems particularly challenging, especially, when current laws regulating disclosures are proving outdated in the backdrop of exponentially bulging personal digital data. This thesis aims to investigate whether there is a balance between the rape victims¿ right to private life and the defendants¿ right to fair trial.

Doctoral alumni

ALEXANDRA KOENIG

Nature of supervision:
Principal Supervisor, Jul 2018

Title of thesis:
The (National) Family Must Be Defended: Unpacking the Racializing Power of the Hegemonic Biography

Awarded:
2021

Teaching

Teaching modules

Regulating Sex and Sexuality (LACN019S7)
Contemporary Criminological Theory (LACN021S7)
Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice (LADD059S7)
Criminology and Social Theory (LALA200H6)
MPhil/PhD Research Methods (LALA228Z7)

Publications

Article

Serisier, Tanya (2021) From date rape jeopardy to (not) drinking tea: consent humour, ridicule and cultural change. Australian Feminist Law Journal ISSN 1320-0968. (In Press)
Carr, N. and Serisier, Tanya and McAlister, S. (2020) Sexual deviance in prison: Queering identity and intimacy in prison research. Criminology and Criminal Justice 20 (5), pp. 551-563. ISSN 1748-8958.
Lamble, Sarah and Serisier, Tanya and Dymock, A. and Carr, N. and Downes, J. and Boukli, A. (2020) Guest Editorial: Queer theory and criminology. Criminology & Criminal Justice 20 (5), pp. 504-509. ISSN 1748-8958.
Serisier, Tanya (2018) Speaking out, and beginning to be heard: Feminism, survivor narratives and representations of rape in the 1980s. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 32 (1), pp. 52-61. ISSN 1030-4312.
Carr, N. and McAlister, S. and Serisier, Tanya (2016) ‘I had to undo eight years of being a woman’: how LGBT prisoners are lost in the system. The Conversation
Serisier, Tanya (2015) “How Can a Woman Who Has Been Raped Be Believed”. Andrea Dworkin, sexual violence and the ethics of belief. Diegesis 4 (1), pp. 68-87. ISSN 2195-2116.
Serisier, Tanya (2014) Lad culture of conquest targeted by new Oxbridge sexual consent workshops. The Conversation
Serisier, Tanya (2013) Who was Andrea? Writing oneself as a Feminist icon. Women: A Cultural Review 24 (1), pp. 26-44. ISSN 0957-4042.
Pendleton, M. and Serisier, Tanya (2012) Some Gays and the Queers. M/C Journal 15 (6), ISSN 1441-2616.
Wilson, D. and Serisier, Tanya (2010) Video activism and the ambiguities of counter-surveillance. Surveillance & Society 8 (2), pp. 166-180. ISSN 1477-7487.
Pendleton, M. and Serisier, Tanya (2009) Beyond the desire for law: sex and crisis in Australian Feminist and Queer politics. Australian Feminist Law Journal 31 (1), pp. 77-98. ISSN 1320-0968.
Serisier, Tanya (2007) Speaking out against rape: feminist (her)stories and anti-rape politics. Lilith: A Feminist History Journal 16, pp. 84-95. ISSN 0813-8990.
Serisier, Tanya (2006) The Bankstown Gang Rapes: rape and the construction of a horrific event. AntiTHESIS 16, pp. 74-89. ISSN 1030-3839.
Serisier, Tanya (2005) Remembering Anita: rape and the politics of commemoration. Australian Feminist Law Journal 23, pp. 121-145. ISSN 1320-0968.

Book

Serisier, Tanya (2018) Speaking out: Feminism, rape and narrative politics. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 9783319986692. (In Press)

Book Review

Serisier, Tanya (2020) Criminal Law and the Man Problem.

Book Section

Serisier, Tanya (2021) Reading survivor narratives: literary criticism as feminist solidarity. In: Hewett, H. and Holland, M.K. (eds.) #MeToo and Literary Studies: Reading, Writing, and Teaching about Sexual Violence and Rape Culture. London, UK: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781501372735. (In Press)
Serisier, Tanya (2021) Breaking the silence to end the violence: 'Speaking Out' as feminist strategy. In: Killean, R. and Dowds, E. and McAlinden, A.-M. (eds.) Sexual Violence on Trial: Local and Comparative Perspectives. Routledge Studies in Crime and Society. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780367404277. (In Press)
Serisier, Tanya (2020) From mild colonial boy to Jake the Paed: Rolf Harris and Australian celebrity masculinity in the UK. In: Taylor, A. and McIntyre, J. (eds.) Gender and Australian Celebrity Culture. Global Gender. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138366220.
Serisier, Tanya (2020) Speaking out, public judgements and narrative politics: researching survivor stories and (not) telling my own. In: Gray-Rosendale, L.A. (ed.) Me Too, Feminist Theory, and Surviving Sexual Violence in the Academy. Lanham, U.S.: Lexington Books. pp. 167-180. ISBN 9781793611123.
Serisier, Tanya (2019) A new age of believing women? Judging rape narratives online. In: Andersson, U. and Edgren, M. and Karlsson, L. and Nilsson, G. (eds.) Rape Narratives in Motion. Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 199-222. ISBN 9783030138516.
Serisier, Tanya (2015) On not reading Fifty Shades: Feminism and the fantasy of romantic immunity. In: Phillips, K. (ed.) Women and Erotic Fiction. Critical Essays on Genres, Markets and Readers. McFarland & Company. pp. 117-132. ISBN 9780786495849.
Serisier, Tanya (2013) Queer spaces, sexual violence and the desire for safety. In: Fraser, V. (ed.) Queer Sexualities: Diversifying Queer, Queering Diversity. Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press. pp. 83-92. ISBN 9781848882188.

Conference Item

Serisier, Tanya (2007) Speaking out, telling (true) stories: autobiography within feminist anti-rape politics. English Post-Graduate Symposium: Me Myself and Eye, 2007, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Serisier, Tanya (2006) In defence of women's rights? whiteness, feminism and the politics of vulnerability. Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association National Conference: Whiteness and the Horizons of Race, 2006, Brisbane, Australia
Serisier, Tanya (2006) Speaking out against rape: feminist (her)stories and anti-rape politics. Lilith Symposium: A Feminist History of Violence, 2006, Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia
Serisier, Tanya (2005) The Bankstown Gang Rapes: rape and the construction of a horrific event. AntiTHESIS Postgraduate Symposium: The Event, 2005, Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia

Editorial

Lamble, Sarah and Serisier, Tanya and Dymock, A. and Downes, J. and Boukli, A. (2020) Queer Theory and Criminology: Editors' Introduction. Criminology and Criminal Justice Sage. ISSN 1748-8958. (In Press)

Business and community

Media

I am happy to receive enquiries from the media on the following topics:

Sexual Violence - Survivors and Feminism
LGBT Prisoners
Sexual Consent - Education and Popular Culture

Outreach

September 2020 - 'Podcast Listening Party: Consent - What's Missing from the Conversation', Bloomsbury Festival - Co-Hosted by SHAME (Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters)

October 2021 - Women Crime and Criminal Justice Network Connecting Criminologists: Dr Louise Wattis interviews Dr Tanya Serisier

October 2020 - SHAME Podcast Listening Party: Consent - What's Missing from the Conversation

December 2019 - BBC Radio 1 'Today Show' Interview on Deborah Harry, Celebrity Memoir and Disclosures of Sexual Violence

January 2019 - Book Launch: Speaking Out: Rape, Feminism and Narrative Politics, with Dr Kiran Grewal (Goldsmiths) and Dr Sarah Lamble (Birkbeck) (As part of the Birkbeck Criminology Seminar Series)

June 2018 - Podcast Appearance - 'Living the Dream in the Time of #MeToo Parts 1 and 2'

September 2018 - #MeToo And The Challenges Of Solving Sexual Violence: An Interview With Dr Tanya Serisier, Green Agenda, Australia

October 2016 - 'Speaking out online: has social media changed responses to sexual violence?' Birkbeck Criminology Seminar Series

May 2015 - Changing Nature of LGBT Families, Sunday Sequence, Radio Ulster, Belfast