Biography
Kate Cregan is an honorary research fellow in the School of Culture and Communication. Her research has been based in the cultural and social analysis of embodiment, with particular attention to medical interpretations, constructions and representations of the human body. Following the submission of her PhD she widened her research base to encompass contemporary issues affecting the human body, with particular reference to issues of exchange and commodification, focussing on analyses of medical technologies and their impact on embodiment. She is currently employed in the Centre for Ethics in Medicine and Society, Monash University and since April 2008 she has been Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Bioethical Inquiry (Springer). However, through this honorary association she maintains a strong research commitment to literary, cultural and sociological theorizations of embodiment.
In 2006 she completed The Sociology of the Body: Mapping the Abstraction of Embodiment, Sage Publications, London which uses a framework is that situates theorizations of embodiment as alternately reading the body as object, subject and abject. She is contracted to Sage to write, Key Concepts in Body and Society, forthcoming in 2010.
Her latest book, The Theatre of the Body: Staging Death and Embodying Life in Early Modern London, was completed with the support of the School of Culture and Communication and the University of Melbourne Publications Committee, and was published by Brepols, Turnhout, Belgium, 2009. This book is a historical and cultural contextualization of the processes of anatomical dissection in seventeenth-century London. It uses three public spaces—the playhouses, the anatomy theatre of the Worshipful Company of Barber-Surgeons and the gallows at Tyburn—as a means of exploring the intensification of the abstraction of embodiment across the seventeenth century in the slow shift in dominance from a traditional to a modern understanding of embodiment.
Qualifications, Honours, Fellowships and Other Awards
Qualifications
| Title | Institution | Date Awarded | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor of Philosophy | Monash University | 18-Oct-1999 | |
| Bachelor of Arts | Monash University | 19-Nov-1992 |
Memberships
| Membership Type | Membership Body | Description | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior Member | The Journal for Bioethical Inquiry | Editor in Chief | 11-Apr-2008 | |
| Member | TASA | Member | 01-Jan-2006 | |
| Member | ARC Network for Early European Research | Member | 10-Apr-2006 |
Other Awards
| Award Type | Awarding Body | Comments | Date Awarded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other (Award) | ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship (APD) | 01-Jan-2003 | |
| Other (Award) | ARC Network Seed Grant | Awarded with 30 others for 'Sources of Insecurity' | 01-Jan-2004 |
Government Research Classifications
Research Fields, Courses and Discipline Classifications
- Public Policy (POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION) (360201)
- Social Theory (SOCIOLOGY) (370101)
- Social Policy and Planning (SOCIOLOGY) (370102)
- Social Change (SOCIOLOGY) (370107)
- History and Philosophy of Medicine (HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE) (370603)
- Aboriginal Studies (OTHER STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY) (379902)
- Legal History (LAW) (390113)
- British and Irish (LITERATURE STUDIES) (420201)
- Cultural Theory (CULTURAL STUDIES) (420302)
- Culture, Gender, Sexuality (CULTURAL STUDIES) (420303)
- History: British (HISTORICAL STUDIES) (430107)
- Applied Ethics (incl. Bioethics and Environmental Ethics) (PHILOSOPHY) (440104)
- Social Philosophy (PHILOSOPHY) (440110)
Socio-Economic Objective Classifications
- Ethnicity and multiculturalism (COMMUNITY SERVICE EXCL. WORK) (750306)
- Families (COMMUNITY SERVICE EXCL. WORK) (750307)
- Social ethics (RELIGION AND ETHICS) (750404)
- International aid (INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS) (750704)
- Understanding Australia's past (UNDERSTANDING PAST SOCIETIES) (750901)
- Understanding the pasts of other societies (UNDERSTANDING PAST SOCIETIES) (750902)
- Studies in human society (NON-ORIENTED RESEARCH) (780107)
Grants and Contracts
Research Grants, Contracts and Consultancies awarded to the University of Melbourne as the administering institution (since 2003) as recorded in Themis Agreements.
Additional Grant and Contract Information
• University of Melbourne Publications Grant (Book), 2007.
• Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, 2003-2005.
• ARC Special Research Fund, 'Sources of Insecurity Research Network', 2003 (seed funding, with Prof. Paul James (CI) and 30 others).
• Monash University Research Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2001-2002.
• RMIT Research Award, Discovery, 2003.
• Monash Graduate Scholarship, 1993-1996.
• Visiting Research Fellowship, University of Southampton, June-July 1996.
• MRF Travel Grant-in-Aid, 1996.
• MRF Conference Grant-in-Aid, 1993 and 1996.
Publications
Publications produced at the University of Melbourne and reported in the Annual Publications Collection and 'Research Report' since 2001. The Themis Publications module, released in November 2006, allows additional publications from previous institutions and publications from past years to be entered.