Emily Gray

Associate Professor Emily Gray

Associate Professor, Education Studies; HDR Delegated Authority

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Contact details

DSC | Education

Email: emily.gray@rmit.edu.au

Phone: +614 2848 2934

Campus: Bundoora

 

Programs

 BP320 - Bachelor of Education

 Masters of Teaching Practice

 Higher Degrees by Research (supervision and course delivery)

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Emily Gray faces forward and is smiling. The photo is in black and white

Contact details

DSC | Education

Email: emily.gray@rmit.edu.au

Phone: +614 2848 2934

Campus: Bundoora

 

Programs

 BP320 - Bachelor of Education

 Masters of Teaching Practice

 Higher Degrees by Research (supervision and course delivery)

More information

iD icon - ORCID

- Google Scholar

- Research Gate

Emily is an Associate Professor of Education Studies and Higher Degrees by Research Delegated Authority at RMIT’s School of Education. Emily’s research is interdisciplinary includes sociology, cultural studies and education.

Overview

Emily's empirically informed scholarship provides insights into educators’ lived experiences in relation to gender, sexisms, sexualities and workplaces and she aims to illustrate how, where, and why educational inequalities occur as well as to shape responses to them. Her research is theoretically engaged, and she develops new ways of working with and thinking through social theory in its application to research problems and questions, as well as within knowledge translation mechanisms. The breadth and depth of Emily's research means that her work has impacted significantly in the fields of gender discrimination in higher education; workplace-based discrimination in relation to LGBTIQ+ educators in both schools and in higher education; sexisms in higher education and finally, popular culture and gender representation.

One of Emily's key achievements in relation to impact and engagement has been in the translation of research results to ensure impact beyond the academy. Her work with #FEAS Feminist Educators Against Sexism strongly reflects this priority. #FEAS is a collective that Emily co-founded in 2016 and is currently co-led by Mindy Blaise (ECU), Jo Pollitt (ECU) and Emily. #FEAS work together as academics, artists, and performers to develop creative and innovative research translation mechanisms including zine making, exhibitions, short films, and live performances. #FEAS aim to make research findings intelligible to audiences outside of the academy and, as their reputation grows, they develop performance pieces for public consumption.

Emily brings a nuanced and sophisticated understanding of how gender operates within the social world and specifically within the workplace to her work in teacher education. Her work with #FEAS has had global impact on research into gender-based discrimination in universities through written submissions and more so by non-traditional, innovative, and creative means of knowledge translation such as performance, exhibition, and large-scale collaborations. This work is shaping the ways in which challenges to everyday and structural sexism are happening internationally.

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Research

As a researcher, Emily is interested in questions of gender and sexuality and with how these identity categories are lived and experienced within social institutions. Her key research interests therefore lie with questions related to gender, social justice, student and teacher identity and with wider social justice issues within educational discourse and practice. She also writes on popular culture, public pedagogies and audience studies, online fandom and media and popular culture as pedagogical tools. She is co-founder of #FEAS Feminist Educators Against Sexism, an international feminist collective committed to developing creative interventions into sexism in the academy and other places.

Research keywords

Gender, Sexism, Higher Education, Sexualities, Sociology

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Supervisor interest areas

  • Gender
  • Sexism
  • Higher Education
  • Sexualities
  • Sociology

Supervisor projects

  • Alamgir - Khawaja Sara and Hijra: Gender and sexual identity formation in contemporary Pakistan (co-supervisors Prof. Peter Kelly and Dr Seth Brown, RMIT University)
  • Samira al Sulaimani - Gendered responses to crisis leadership in Omani higher education (co-supervisor Prof. Jeff Brooks RMIT University)
  • Javed Anwar - Improving Gender Equality in Primary Education and Its Impact on Social Uplift in Balochistan, Pakistan (co-supervisors Prof. Peter Kelly and Dr Elise Hunkin, RMIT University)
  • Matthew Barker - On the Impossibility of Being a Good Teacher (co-supervisor Prof. Peter Kelly, RMIT University)
  • Alexandra Ciaffaglione - The Erasure of LGBTQIA+ teacher identities in Australian Catholic education systems (co-supervisor Dr Michael Crowhurst RMIT University)
  • Leigh Fisher - Making sense of the Anganwadi (co-supervisor Prof. Dan Harris RMIT University)
  • James Goring - A Genealogy of Critical Thinking: Re-thinking Neo-liberal Educational Discourses and the ‘Problem’ of Young People (co-supervisor Prof. Peter Kelly, RMIT University)
  • Roz Ward – Family Values: An Autotheoretical Exploration of the Backlash Against Safe Schools in Australia (co-supervisor Prof. Peter Kelly, RMIT University)

Feature publications

Coming Out as a Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual Teacher: Negotiating Private and Professional Worlds

Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, 13. (6): 702-714

Gray, E.M. (2013)

Exclusionary Spaces and Points of Interruption for Australian LGBTQ Teachers

Sexualities. 19.(3): 286-303

Gray, E.M., Harris, D. and Jones, T. (2016).

GLBTIQ Teachers in Australian Education Policy: Protections, Suspicions, and Restrictions

Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning. 14 (3): 338-353.

Jones, T., Gray, E.M. and Harris, D. (2014).

Key publications by year

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Journal Articles

Book Chapters

  • Gray, E.M. (2021). LGBTIQ+ Teachers in Australia. In Cris Mayo (Ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Gray, E.M (2021). LGBTIQ+ Teachers. In Cris Mayo (Ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Fricker, A., Gray, E.M., and Crowhurst, M. (2021). Race, Gender and Sexualities in Australian Teacher Education: Reflections from the Intersections. In Lata Murti and Glenda M. Flores. (Eds.). Educators at Intersections. The Netherlands: Springer.
  • Pollitt, J., Blaise, M. and Gray, E.M., (In press 2021). Zine making as feminist care during COVID-19. In Deborah Lupton and Deana Leahy. (Eds.). Creative Approaches to Health Education: New Ways of Thinking, Making, Doing and Learning. London: Routledge.

Journal Articles
  • Gilbert, J. and Gray, E.M. (2020). Unhappy Histories: Welcoming LGBTIQ+ Teachers into the Profession. Teaching Education. 31 (1): 1-5. (Q1)

Special Issue Edited Journals

  • Gilbert, J. and Gray, E.M. (2020). Teaching Education, LGBTIQ+ Teachers: Stories from the Field. 31 (1). (Q1)

Book Chapters

  • Knight, L., Blaise, M. and Gray, E.M. (2020). Powerful Dressing: Artfully Challenging Sexism in the Academy. In Taylor, C. and Hughes, C. (Eds.). Transdisciplinary Feminist Research: Innovations in Theory, Method and Practice. London: Routledge - shortlisted for consideration for AERA Outstanding Book Award.

Journal Articles
  • Gray, E.M., and Nicholas, N. (2019). ‘You’re Actually the Problem’: Manifestations of Populist Masculinist Anxieties in Australian Higher Education. British Journal of Sociology of Education. 40 (2): 269-286. (Q1)

Edited Books

  • Duggan, S., Gray, E.M., Kelly, P., Finn, K. and Gagnon, J. (Eds.) (2019). Social Justice in Times of Crisis and Hope. New York: Peter Lang.

Book Chapters

  • Swan, E., Leahy, D., Gray, E.M., Supski, S. and Wessell, A. (2019). We're All Intersectional Now: Representational Intersectionality in Melbourne's Immigration Museum. In Parker, B., Brady, J., Power, E. and Belya, S. (Eds.). Feminist Food Studies. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
  • Gray, E.M. (2019). Re-doing Teacher Education: Joyful Differences? Australian Queer Teacher Educators and Social Justice Education. In Jones, T., Coll, L., van Leent, L. and Taylor, Y. (Eds.). Uplifting Gender and Sexuality Education Research. Cham: Palgrave.
  • Sinclair, M.P. and Gray, E. M. (2019). Australian Educational Policy, School Funding, and Equity: A Neoliberal Governmentality Study. In Duggan, S., Gray, E., Kelly, P., Finn, K. and Gagnon, J. (Eds.).
  • Social Justice in Times of Crisis and Hope. New York: Peter Lang.
  • Gilbert, A. and Gray, E.M. (2019). Queer Wanderings: Disrupting Science Education Through Wonder. In Fifield, S. and Letts, W. (Eds.). STEM of Desire: Queer Theories in Science Education. Netherlands: Brill.
  • Blaise, M., Knight, L. and Gray, E.M. (2019). Punk Feminism and #FEAS: A Lowbrow Protest of Academic Sexism. In Crimmins, G. (Ed.). Strategies for Resisting Sexism in the Academy: Higher Education, Gender and Intersectionality. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Journal Articles
  • Gray, E.M., Knight, L. and Blaise, M. (2018). Wearing, Speaking and Shouting about Sexism: Developing Arts-Based Interventions into Sexism in the Academy. Australian Educational Researcher. 45 (5): 585-601. (Q1)

Other

Journal Articles
  • Gray, E.M., Pluim, C., Pike, J. and Leahy, D. (2017). ‘Someone has to keep shouting’: Celebrities as food pedagogues. Journal of Celebrity Studies. 9 (1): 69-83. (Q1)
  • Gray, E.M. (2017). Teaching and Tolerance: Aversive and Divisive Pedagogical Encounters. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. 39 (3): 422-433. (Q1)

Journal Articles
  • Gray, E.M., Harris, D. and Jones, T. (2016). Exclusionary Spaces and Points of Interruption for Australian LGBTQ Teachers. Sexualities. 19.(3): 286-303. (Q1)

Book Chapters

  • Black, R. Gray, E.M., and Leahy, D. (2016). Zombies, Monsters and Education: The Creation of the Young Citizen. In Carrington, V., Rowsell, J., Priyadharshini, E., and Westrup, B. (Eds.). Generation Z: Zombies, Popular Culture and Education. Netherlands: Springer.

Journal Articles
  • Leahy, D., Gray, E., Cutter-Mackenzie, A. and Eames, C. (2015). Schooling Food in Contemporary Times: Taking Stock. Australian Journal of Environmental Education. 31 (1): 1-11. (Q2)
  • Gray, E.M. and Harris, D. (2015). 'Queer Superheroes: The Impossibility of Difference, A Neoliberal Promise of Equal (Teacher) Love', in Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. 29 (1): 97-108 ISSN: 1030-4312 (Q1)

Special Issue Edited Journals

  • Leahy, D., Gray, E.M., Cutter-McKenzie, A., and Eames, C. (2015). Australian Journal of Environmental Education: Putting Food on the Table. 31 (1). (Q2)

Book Chapters

  • Gray, E.M. (2015). There, here and back again: The search for Middle-earth in Birmingham. In Piatti-Farnell (Ed.). Fan Phenomena: The Lord of the Rings. London: Intellect.
  • Gray, E.M. (2015) Writing ‘Lesbian, Gay-Type Lovers’: Interrupting the Lesbian Cliché Within a Buffy Fanfiction Site. In Piatti-Farnell, L. and Brien, D. (Eds.). New Directions in 21st Century Gothic: The Gothic Compass. London: Routledge.

Journal Articles
  • Gray, E.M. (2014). In/between Places: Connection and Isolation in The Bridge. Aeternum 1(1): 73-85. (Unranked)
  • Jones, T., Gray, E.M. and Harris, D. (2014). GLBTIQ Teachers in Australian Education Policy: Protections, Suspicions, and Restrictions. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning. 14 (3): 338-353. (Q1)

Edited Books

  • Harris, D. and Gray, E.M. (Eds) (2014). Queer Teachers, Identity and Performativity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Book Chapters

  • Gray, E.M. (2014). LGBTQ Teachers and the Location of Difference in English Schools. In Harris, A. and Gray, E. M. (Eds). Queer Teachers, Identity and Performativity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Leahy, D. and Gray, E.M. (2014). Popular Pedagogical assemblages in the Health Education Classroom. In P. Benson and A. Chik, A. (Eds.). Popular Culture, Pedagogy and Teacher Education: International Perspectives. London: Routledge.

Journal Articles
  • Gray, E.M. (2013). Coming Out as a Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual Teacher: Negotiating Private and Professional Worlds. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, 13. (6): 702-714. (Q1)
  • Gray, E.M. and Leahy, D. (2013). Cooking Up Healthy Citizens: The Pedagogy of Cookbooks. M/C Journal, Queensland University of Technology * Creative Industries Faculty. Australia. 16 (3): 1-7. (Unranked)
  • Gray, E.M. and Leahy, D. (2013). Gender Translations and the Health Education Textbook. TEXT. 23: 1-10. (Unranked)

Book Chapters

  • Gray, E.M. (2007). ‘Are You Married Sir?’: Heteronormativity in British Schools and its Impact Upon Queer Staff and Pupils – A Generational Perspective’. In Kolářová, Kateřina & Sokolová, Vera. Eds. Gender and Generation. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia.
Web

Grants

  • 2021-2023 ARC Discovery: Understanding and addressing everyday sexisms in Australian universities - Mindy Blaise (ECU), Emily Gray, Jacqueline Ullman (WSU)
  • 2021-2022 Victorian Department of Education and Training: Gender equity - consultation and co-design, Portable, Huddle, Emily Gray (RMIT University), Jacqueline Ullman (WSU)
  • 2015 AARE Strategic Initiative Grant: Developing Arts-Based Interventions into Everyday Sexism in the Academy, Emily Gray (RMIT University), Mindy Blaise (VU), Linda Knight (QUT)
Web

Public and media engagements

Web
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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.

More information