Dr Amy Dobson - Researcher Profile

Amy Dobson

Address

School of Political & Social Inquiry
Faculty of Arts, Clayton

Contact Details

Email: Amy.Dobson@monash.edu


Biography

Amy holds an Early Career Development Fellowship in the Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research.  Her work focuses on representations of gender on social network sites and in social media.  Other research interests include girls and young women's negotiation of media and 'raunch' culture; cultural/media 'sexualisation'; feminism and feminist theories of representation; and professional boundaries between graduate students and supervisors.

Amy’s research focuses on representations of gender on social network sites and in social media. She is currently working on a book about digital performances of femininity on social network sites.

With Dr Danielle Tyson (Criminology, Monash) and Dr Mary Lou Rasmussen (Education, Monash), Amy is currently working on the project Youth, mobile technologies and gender politics: young people’s beliefs about gender and ethical use of communication technologies.   The project examines the nature of sexual politics in high school communities in relation to young people’s engagement with social network sites and mobile communication devices, in the social context of an alleged broad ‘sexualisation of culture’.  The team recently presented a submission to the Victorian Law Reform Committee Inquiry into ‘Sexting’.

Other research interests include girls and young women’s negotiation of media and ‘raunch’ culture; cultural/media ‘sexualisation’; feminism and feminist theories of representation; and professional boundaries between graduate students and supervisors.

Past research includes work on Internet cam girls, exploring the meanings of cam girl performances and communities for contemporary feminist politics.

 

Related Links:

Research & Supervision Interests

    Amy’s research and supervision interests include:

    • Gender and contemporary popular culture
    • Gender and social media
    • Girlhood studies
    • Constructions of femininity
    • Raunch culture/cultural ‘sexualisation’
    • Feminist performance/art
    • Youth and media culture

Keywords

Feminism, Media representation of women, Sociology of Sex and Gender, Youth identities, social networking sites, sexualisation, girls

Qualifications

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Institution: Monash University
Year awarded: 2010

Publications

Book Chapters

Dobson, A., 2011, The representation of female friendships on young women's MySpace profiles: The all-female world and the feminine 'other', in Youth Culture and Net Culture: Online Social Practices, eds Elza Dunkels, Gun-Marie Franberg and Camilla Hallgren, Information Science Reference, Hershey PA US, pp. 126-152.

Dobson, A.R.S., 2008, Femininities as Commodities: Cam Girl Culture, in Next Wave Cultures: Feminism, Subcultures, Activism, eds Anita Harris, Routledge, USA, pp. 123-148.

Journal Articles

Dobson, A.R.S., 2012, 'Individuality is everything': 'Autonomous' femininity in MySpace mottos and self-descriptions, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies [P], vol 26, issue 3, Routledge, London United Kingdom, pp. 371-383.

Dobson, A.R.S., 2012, 'Sexy' and 'Laddish' girls: unpacking complicity between two cultural imag(inations)es of young femininity, Feminist Media Studies [E], vol E, Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 1-17.

Dobson, A., 2011, Hetero-sexy representation by young women on MySpace: The politics of performing an 'objectified' self, Outskirts: Feminisms along the edge [E], vol 25, University of Western Australia Centre for Women's Studies, Australia, pp. 1-14.

Brown, D., Ubels, J., De Souza, N., Dobson, A., Collins, F., 2011, Kisses under the starlight: The performance of masculinities and Emo on MySpace, Reinvention: A Journal of Undergraduate Research [E], vol 4, issue 2, University of Warwick Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning, UK, pp. 1-11.

Conference Proceedings

Dobson, A.R.S., 2008, The "grotesque body" in young women's self presentation on My Space, The annual conference of The Australian Sociological Association 2008. Re-imagining Sociology: Conference Publication Proceedings, 2 - 5 December 2008, The Australian Sociological Association (TASA), Australia, pp. 1-19.

Teaching Commitment

ATS2560/3560: Theorising Sexed Bodies: Contemporary Feminist Theory

ATS1311: Sex, Gender, and Knowledge

ATS2561/3561: Sex and the media

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:
(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Representations of Prostitutes in the Art of the Weimar Republic.
Supervisors:
Maher, J (Main), Dobson, A (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Something Old, Something New? New Gendered Subjectivities across Film and Reality Television.
Supervisors:
Dobson, A (Main), Maher, J (Associate).