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Christine Labuski

Associate Professor
  • Associate Director of ASPECT
  • Department of Science, Technology, and Society
Christine Labuski
335 Lane Hall
280 Alumni Mall
Blacksburg, VA 24060

Christine Labuski is the Associate Director of the ASPECT program and is an associate professor of Science, Technology and Society and Women’s and Gender Studies. Her research and teaching are organized around two primary areas of inquiry: 1) sexualities and how sexualities become medicalized, and; 2) gender and climate/environmental justice, with an emphasis on feminist energy systems, queer ecologies, and the gender politics of fossil fuel boomtowns.

Dr. Labuski has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and essays on the subject of chronic and unexplained genital pain. Her first book, It Hurts Down There: The Bodily Imaginaries of Female Genital Pain, was co-awarded the Dissertation/First Book Prize in Women’s and Gender Studies from SUNY Press and her 2013 article “Vulnerable Vulvas” was awarded the Claire Goldberg Moses award for theoretical innovation from the journal Feminist Studies. Since then, she has been investigating the feminist and gendered dimensions of energy systems with a focus on energy justice. Her co-authored (with S. Bell and C. Daggett) article “Toward Feminist Energy Systems: Why Adding Women and Solar Panels is Not Enough,” was awarded the 2021 Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication award in Environmental Sociology.

Dr. Labuski holds a PhD in cultural anthropology and is currently editing The Ethnographic Case (2023, Mattering Press), a collection of 28 ethnographic case studies, ranging from sexual violence in the Mennonite Church to how communities respond to environmental contaminants. She teaches courses in: ecofeminisms; gender, science, and technology; sexualities; feminism, work, and labor; and sexual medicine. She has been awarded numerous teaching awards during her time at Virginia Tech, including the Diggs Teaching Scholar Award, a Certificate of Teaching Excellence, and the E. Gordon Ericksen award for Graduate Student Teaching.


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