Joanna Kellond

I am a critical and cultural theorist who employs psychoanalytic thinking to theorise the interrelation of social and symbolic change, with a particular interest in the philosophy, theory, politics and aesthetics of social reproduction and care. In my monograph, Donald Winnicott and the Politics of Care, published in the Palgrave Macmillan series, Studies in the Psychosocial, in 2022, I investigated what the work of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott can contribute to understanding, as well as addressing, the crisis of care at the heart of contemporary society. My more recent work and current projects explore the relationship between psychoanalytic thinking and social and symbolic change, centring feminist, queer and decolonial perspectives.

More broadly, my research foregrounds the relationship between psychoanalysis, culture and society. I explore psychoanalytic thinking as a critical discourse in the Humanities, and as both a product, and active agent, of social and cultural change. I am concerned with the relationship between psychoanalysis, as theory and practice, and social justice; the politics of mental health; and the politics of reproduction and care. Theoretically, my work draws on a range of psychoanalytic perspectives, including Freudian, Lacanian, object relational and Laplanchian approaches, as well as Critical Theory; feminist theory; gender studies; queer theory and cultural studies. Much of my research to date has explored the knots that bind psychoanalytic thinking to cultural practices and social processes.

I am Course Leader for the BA(Hons) Politics, Sexuality and Gender, for which I led the design and successful validation. I'm a member of the Management Board for the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics at Brighton, where I contribute to several themes, including 'The Politics of Reproduction' and 'Political Fictions.'

I welcome PhD projects related to any of my research interests. I am particularly interested in working on projects related to: the intersections between psychoanalysis and Marxism, in particular socialist-feminism; the work of Donald Winnicott and related theorists; psychoanalytic feminist theory and philosophy; gender, sexuality and kinship; and the politics of reproduction and care. More broadly, I am interested in working on projects related to psychoanalysis as it intersects with cultural, social and political questions and debates. This includes studies focused on literature, visual culture, Critical Theory, philosophy, history or politics. I am also interested in supervising projects in the field of Critical Theory that relate to the themes of care, reproduction, gender, sexuality or feminism.