Justine Gieni

Instructor III

PhD (University of Saskatchewan); MA (University of Regina); BA (University of Regina)

Contact Info

Back to Directory

Research Interests

Gendered violence and trauma
Men and masculinities
Feminist and psychoanalytic theories
Monsters and monstrosity (abjection, ‘Otherness,’ and alterity)
Sexual and reproductive rights
Military narratives
Genre fiction (Horror, Science/Speculative Fiction, Folklore and Fairy tales, Children’s Literature)
Popular culture (“MeToo” movement, Manosphere/Incel online masculinities, technology-facilitated sexual/gender violence)

My research is primarily focused on feminist thought and action as it relates to reading, writing, and teaching. I try to align my academic research and pedagogical approaches to the study of narrative together with my personal values around equity and advocacy. Both my master’s dissertation and doctoral dissertation focus on contemporary literary and film narrative representations of sexual violence. In my master’s dissertation, I focus on the embodied language of sexual assault survivors in works by Alice Walker, Tori Amos, and Frances Driscoll; in my doctoral dissertation, I examine how social constructions of masculinity can catalyze gendered violence as demonstrated in literature by Ian McEwan, Chang-rae Lee, and Timothy Findley, among others.

I have presented and published several papers, articles, and book chapters on topics related to contemporary narrative representations of sexual and gender-based violence. My current research projects include a community-engaged history project on sexual and reproductive health activism and advocacy in Saskatchewan, a conference paper on gendered monstrosity and masculinities in films directed by Guillermo Del Toro, and a conference paper on technology-facilitated sexual violence in Emerald Fennell’s film Promising Young Woman.

I am interested in projects that explore sexual/sexualized violence, monstrosity, and Otherness through various genres: horror (body horror, eco-horror, and cyber-horror), folklore and fairytale, as well as speculative fiction. I am also interested in aspects of popular culture that intersect with sexual violence narratives – especially the “MeToo movement,” the ‘manosphere’ and incel subcultures of masculinity, and the complex roles of technology.

Selected Publications

"The Pursuit of Culinary Capital in Portlandia and Master of None" in Hipster Culture: Transnational and Intersectional Perspectives. Bloomsbury Academic. 2021.

"Assuming a 'Manly Position': The Crisis of Masculinity in Ian McEwan's Early Fiction." Incest in Contemporary Literature. Manchester UP. 2018.

"Punishing the Abject Child: The Delight and Discipline of Body Horror in Heinrich Hoffman's Struwwelpeter." Reading in the Dark: Horror in Children's Literature and Culture. University Press of Mississippi. 2017.

"Queering Masculinity: Sexual Dissidence as Anti-bullying Discourse in Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry." MP: Online Feminist Journal. 3.5. (Summer 2012).

"'A Contagion within': Male Hysteria and Survivor Guilt in Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life." Journal of Monsters and the Monstrous. Inter-Disciplinary Press. 2.1. (May 2012).

"Rape and Revenge in Graphic Detail: Neil Gaiman's 'Calliope' in The Sandman Comic Series.” Forum: Postgraduate Journal. 13 (Winter 2011).