Meet Australia’s SHAPE EMCRs – Dr Hannah McCann

Dr Hannah McCann is a Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies in the School of Culture and Communication. Her research in critical femininity studies explores feminist discourse on femininity, queer femme LGBTQ+ communities, beauty culture, and queer fangirls.

We recently talked to Hannah to find out more about her work and being an EMCR.

How did you come to be a researcher in cultural studies?

A little by accident. Cultural Studies is a highly interdisciplinary field, and my background is just that – with undergraduate majors in Psychology, Political Science and Philosophy, followed by a PhD in Sociology and Gender Studies! Cultural Studies is however characterised by its political commitments and critical analysis of contemporary culture, which has been my dedication in all that I have pursued to date. My work on research topics such as queer feminine subcultures, fandom and digital culture, and beauty culture found a natural home in this discipline. 

I’ve been examining questions relating to femininity in different sites – from online fangirls to beauty salon workers – with an overarching interest in challenging myths and stereotypes about femininity, feminism, and queer experiences of these arenas.

Tell us about your research 

My research can broadly be characterised as falling within “critical femininity studies”, a kind of sister field to masculinity studies interested in examining the phenomena of femininity and all its associations. Within this, my PhD was on queer femme identity and looked at experiences of marginalisation within queer communities around feminine aesthetic gender expression. I turned this work into a book called “Queering Femininity: Sexuality, Feminism and the Politics of Presentation”. Since then, I’ve been examining questions relating to femininity in different sites – from online fangirls to beauty salon workers – with an overarching interest in challenging myths and stereotypes about femininity, feminism, and queer experiences of these arenas. 

Why does your work matter?

Things associated with femininity – sites, practices, desires, aesthetics, roles, etc – are frequently derided as frivolous, unimportant, and/or wholly determined by patriarchal expectations and consumer culture.  My work is about asking questions about people’s identities and experiences associated with femininity in ways that challenge this derision and framework, to offer insight into agency without losing site of gendered structural constraints. Always the bigger picture is about imagining another world that is possible, and finding the glimmers of a queerer, liberated gendered present on the horizon. 

I love that a huge part of this job is not only being a thinker but being a writer and getting to spend all day crafting words and translating the world through research.

What do you love most about being a researcher in cultural studies?

Truly being a Cultural Studies academic must be one of the luckiest/best jobs in the world – getting to spend all day thinking about and reading theory, teaching and mentoring students, and doing diverse fieldwork, from digital ethnography to interviews. I love that a huge part of this job is not only being a thinker but being a writer and getting to spend all day crafting words and translating the world through research. 

What are you working on now or intending to do next?

Currently, I am working on an ARC DECRA project also in critical femininities, which seeks to examine the site of the hair/beauty salon in terms of identity and labour to ask, what does it mean to think about sites of beauty beyond “skin deep”? You can visit my project website at www.beautysalonproject.com

What’s the one aspect you find most challenging about being an EMCR?

While being an academic can be truly wonderful the constraints of the neoliberal university sometimes make this very challenging, and indeed the road to securing employment is truly harrowing. The emphasis on managerialism, administration, so-called job readiness/industry focus, and the economic bottom line all undermine the brilliance of the daily work of academia. Add to this a context where universities – and especially cultural studies! – are often under attack ala the “culture wars” and things can feel very difficult.