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TASA Thursday is pleased to welcome members of the ‘Experimenting with Estrogen’ Working Group, led by Professor Celia Roberts. The group won an ARC Discovery Grant 2025 to study the multiplicity of estrogen and its functions in human and non-human bodies.

This is a great opportunity for a discussion with leading researchers in the field of hormonal theory. The team will discuss how they are using their framework of theory (feminism, queer theory, Actor Network Theory etc) and social research practices (forms of ethnography). The group will also discuss their own story and what it takes to form a successful research team and partnership.

Background

Hormone-related medical care typically relies on binary understandings of sex and gender, to the detriment of a wide range of patients, including menopausal women and non-binary and trans people. Controversies related to estrogen are socially divisive; they include the safety of hormone treatment for menopausal women and the ethics of prescribing estrogen-blockers to gender diverse young people.

The Experimenting with Estrogen Working Group (EEWG) enhances health inclusion in Australia by bringing together researchers from the social sciences and humanities, health and medicine, neuroscience, and relevant communities (including those with lived experience of estrogen interventions) to discuss and shape research practices and policies around estrogen. https://genderinstitute.anu.edu.au/news/experimenting-estrogen

Event Details:
Date: Thursday 27th August 2026
Time: 12:30pm - 13:30pm (AEST)
Format: Zoom Webinar
Webinar Cost: complimentary

Your Speakers 

 

Celia Roberts
Celia Roberts is a sociologist whose research spans gender, sexuality, health, reproduction, biomedicine and Science and Technology Studies. She began her academic career at Macquarie University’s National Centre for HIV Social Research before completing her PhD at the University of Sydney. Her doctoral research was later published as Messengers of Sex: Hormones, Biomedicine and Feminism (2007).

Celia joined Lancaster University in 2001, where she undertook research on Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis and later became a permanent member of the Sociology Department. Her publications include Born and Made: An Ethnography of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (2006), Puberty in Crisis: The Sociology of Early Sexual Development (2015), Companion to Actor-Network Theory and Living Data: Making Sense of Health Biosensing.

In 2018, Celia returned to Australia to join the Australian National University, where she continues collaborative research on feminism, sexuality, reproduction, health, epigenetics and science and technology.