ABOUT

Carolyn Laubender, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex, where she is the founding Co-Director of the MA in Gender & Sexuality Studies. Her interdisciplinary research interests include psychoanalytic theory and history, feminist theory, queer theory, trans studies, and 20th century Anglophone literature and film. Prior to joining Essex, Carolyn taught in The Program in Literature and The Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University in the US, where she was awarded fellowships from both Duke and the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA). She holds a Ph.D. from the Program in Literature at Duke University (with dual Certifications in Feminist Studies and College Teaching) and a BA in Gender Studies and Literature from Lehigh University. She also serves as the Book Reviews Editor for Psychoanalysis & History.

Carolyn’s first book, The Political Clinic: Psychoanalysis and Social Change in the 20th Century (Columbia UP, May 2024), takes up her interest in psychoanalysis to explore the under-acknowledged political work performed in and through the psychoanalytic clinic, which has long been held to be a site of neutrality, impartiality, and apoliticality. She is currently at work on two new projects: the first is a commissioned new edition of Oxford UP’s Very Short Introduction to Freud (under contract; expected 2027) and the second is a special issue of Psychoanalysis & History entitled Trans-Analytics: Psychoanalysis, Gender, and History (expected 2026). Her recent articles can be found in journals such as Psychoanalysis, Culture, & Society (2022; 2021), Arizona Quarterly (2020), and Studies in Gender and Sexuality (2019), among others.

Outside of work, Carolyn splits her time between Durham NC and the UK. She believes fervently in the universal value of bad TV and the Oxford comma.