Anna Segal
She/They
About
I graduated with a 1st Class BA (hons) degree in Criminology from Middlesex University and a Distinction in MA Methods of Social Research from the University of Kent. I was awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship to undertake my PhD in Sociology at the University of Kent.
Prior to my work in academia, I have a background of working in mental health care and social work services, both within the NHS and charitable sector.
My own position as an LGBTQ+ person with multiple disabilities and a commitment to inclusivity and accessibility is at the core of my approach to all aspects of my work, including my teaching and research.
PhD Research
Working title: BDSM & the Self: an exploration into women’s sexuality, identity, and community.
This interdisciplinary (sociological) project explores self identified women’s engagement with BDSM practices and communities, what it means to them, and what role it plays in their identity development and sociopolitical positioning. With an understanding of female sexual subjectivities and desires as commonly oppressed or belittled, I explore the ways that ‘deviant’ or subversive sex can be potentially empowering or transformative for women. Coming from a sex positive feminist perspective, and drawing on the work of scholars such as Rubin, Butler, Foucault, and Weiss, among others; this project seeks to move beyond existing essentialist and binary notions of ‘deviant’ sex to better understand the lived experience of women who practice BDSM.
My research is qualitative in nature, and used semi structured narrative interviews. My thesis will explore and present the significance (and subversive nature) of BDSM in my participants’ lives on micro, meso, and macro levels – the micro: examining the role their practice plays on their individual identity; meso: the format and role of community spaces (their liminal and luscory nature); and the macro: the sociopolitical level, positioning BDSM alongside queerness, as an ideology which extends beyond the practice.
Research interests
- Gender, sexuality & inequality
- Deviance & violence
- Transgressive/non-normative sexual practices and relationship styles (E.g. Kink & nonmonogamy)
- Feminist & queer theory
- Crip & disability studies
- Critical Pedagogy
- Gendered mental health, psychiatric diagnosis, and the criminal justice system
Teaching
I have 6 years of experience teaching and convening in HE settings across several core criminological and sociological modules including: Forensic Criminology and Foundations of Criminology at the University of Greenwich (UoG), and Sociology of Mental Health, Crime and Society, the Sociology of Crime and Deviance, Violence and Society, and Social Research Methods at the University of Kent (UoK). I have also guest lectured on gender and mental health, sexual violence, and ‘dangerous’/ ‘deviant’ sex. I was module leader on a second-year specialist module (Drugs and Us: Crime, Health, Politics, and Culture) and a MA module (Crime and Criminal Justice in a Globalised and Gendered World) at UoG; and convener on Gender, Sexuality & Criminal Justice, and Crime, Inequality and Social Change at Birkbeck, University of London.