dr Anna Kurowicka

Anna Kurowicka received a PhD in cultural studies at the University of Warsaw for a dissertation entitled “Politics of Asexuality. A Critical Analysis of Discourses on Asexualities.” In 2015, she was awarded the Kosciuszko Foundation grant to conduct research at Emory University. She has published on asexuality in Sexualities, Teksty Drugie, and Feminist Formations. Her current research is focused on cultural representations of asexuality, connections between asexuality and queer theory, and asexuality and genderlessness in sf. She is a co-chair of the Gender/Sexuality Research Group and a member of the Speculative Texts and Media Research Group at the ASC. She is currently working on a project on representations of asexuality in American popular culture funded by the National Science Center (SONATA, 2021-24). As part of an international research team led by Prof. Tomasz Basiuk and Prof. Eveline Kilian (Queer Theory in Transit: Reception, Translation, and Production of Queer Theory in Polish and German Contexts; 2023-2026, National Science Center), she investigates how American queer theories are taught at Polish universities.

Role at the ASC

ASC Deputy Director
Co-chair of the Gender/Sexuality Research Group
Member of the Speculative Texts and Media Research Group

Achievements

member of the European Association for American Studies Women’s Network Steering Committee

National Science Center research grant, Asexuality in American Popular Culture (SONATA, 2021-24)

co-chair of the Asexuality Studies Interest Group in the National Women’s Studies Association, 2018-2020

research grant funded by the State Fund for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, The image of autism in science fiction, 2019-2020

Kościuszko Foundation Grant, 2015

Publications

“Contested Intersections: Asexuality and Disability, Illness, or Trauma.” Sexualities, 0(0).

“Asexual and Genderless Futures.” In The Routledge Companion to Gender and Science Fiction, edited by Sonja Fritzsche, Wendy Pearson, Keren Omry, Lisa Yaszek, 72-78. New York: Routledge, 2023.

“Cyberpunk ucieleśniony: Feministyczne reinterpretacje gatunku.” [“Embodied Cyberpunk: Feminist Reinterpretations of the Genre”]. Teksty Drugie 6/2021, 91-108.

“‘The only story I will ever be able to tell:’ Nonsexual Erotics of Friendship in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Tana French’s The Likeness.” Feminist Formations 32, no. 3 (Winter 2020): 24-50.

with Ela Przybylo.“Polish Asexualities: Catholic Religiosity and Asexual Online Activisms in Poland.” Asexual Online Activisms in Poland.” In LGBTQ+ Activism in Central Eastern Europe, edited by Radzhana Buyantueva and Maryna Shevtsova, 289-311. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

with Marta Usiekniewicz. “Fat Girl’s Wet Dream: Girl Sexuality, Fatness, and Mental Disability in My Mad Fat Diary.” Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 2019.

Courses (selected)

(A)sexualities in American Culture and Society: Redefining Sex, Sexuality, and Intimacy

Transgressing Identities

New American Intimacies

Politics and Aesthetics of American Fantasy

Introduction to Gender and Sexuality Studies

Contemporary American Feminist Thought and Activism

BA Seminar: Sexualities in American Culture and Society