- Humiliation's Media Cultures: On the Power of the Social to Oblige Us Cefai, Sarah. 2020. Humiliation's Media Cultures: On the Power of the Social to Oblige Us. New Media & Society, 22(7), pp. 1287-1304. ISSN 1461-4448
- Mediating the Presence of Others: Reconceptualising Co-Presence as Mediated Intimacy Cefai, Sarah and Couldry, Nick. 2019. Mediating the Presence of Others: Reconceptualising Co-Presence as Mediated Intimacy. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(3), pp. 291-308. ISSN 1367-5494
- The Humiliation of 'Sex with Optimism': Fieldnotes from Tinder Cefai, Sarah. 2018. The Humiliation of 'Sex with Optimism': Fieldnotes from Tinder. Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affect Inquiry, 1(3), pp. 104-122.
- Mediating affect in John Pilger’s Utopia: ‘the good life’ as a structure of whiteness Cefai, Sarah. 2018. Mediating affect in John Pilger’s Utopia: ‘the good life’ as a structure of whiteness. Cultural Studies, 32(1), pp. 126-148. ISSN 0950-2386
- Introduction: Mediating Affect Cefai, Sarah. 2017. Introduction: Mediating Affect. Cultural Studies, 32(1), pp. 1-17. ISSN 0950-2386
- Policing Aboriginality in Aboriginal policing: cultural labour and policing policy Cefai, Sarah. 2015. Policing Aboriginality in Aboriginal policing: cultural labour and policing policy. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2015(1), pp. 12-29. ISSN 0729-4352
- Love’s lesbian refrain of feeling: “Bette and Tina” and the subversion of heterosexual affect Cefai, Sarah. 2015. Love’s lesbian refrain of feeling: “Bette and Tina” and the subversion of heterosexual affect. Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge(28),
- The Lesbian Intimate: Capacities for Feeling in Convergent Media Contexts Cefai, Sarah. 2014. The Lesbian Intimate: Capacities for Feeling in Convergent Media Contexts. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, 11(1), pp. 237-253. ISSN 1749-8716
- Feeling and the Production of Lesbian Space in The L Word Cefai, Sarah. 2014. Feeling and the Production of Lesbian Space in The L Word. Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 21(5), pp. 650-665. ISSN 0966-369X
- Cartographies of Belonging: The Marketisation of Desire through Media, Practice and Place Cefai, Sarah. 2013. Cartographies of Belonging: The Marketisation of Desire through Media, Practice and Place. Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 21(5), pp. 582-588. ISSN 0966-369X
- Getting Emotional After Sex: Tendencies in Queer Studies Cefai, Sarah. 2013. Getting Emotional After Sex: Tendencies in Queer Studies. Somatechnics, 3(1), pp. 190-206. ISSN 2044-0138
- Unhappy Families Cefai, Sarah. 2011. Unhappy Families. Cultural Studies Review, 17(1), pp. 339-348. ISSN 1446-8123
- No Such Thing as Standard Beauty: Intersectionality and Embodied Feeling on America's Next Top Model Cefai, Sarah and Elena, Indelicato Maria. 2010. No Such Thing as Standard Beauty: Intersectionality and Embodied Feeling on America's Next Top Model. Outskirts: Feminisms Along the Edge, 24, ISSN 1445-0445
- Up Close and Personal, But Not Close Enough Cefai, Sarah. 2010. Up Close and Personal, But Not Close Enough. Cultural Studies Review, 16(1), pp. 273-278. ISSN 1446-8123
Dr Sarah Cefai
Dr Sarah Cefai specialises in affect studies vis-à-vis the critical and social epistemologies of feminism, queer theory and cultural studies.
Staff details
Position
Lecturer in Gender, Sexuality and Cultural Studies
Department
Media, Communications and Cultural Studies
s.cefai (@gold.ac.uk)
Sarah is a feminist cultural theorist whose work examines questions of cultural experience, identity and belonging. She has an MA (hons) in Geography from the University of Edinburgh (2002), an MSc in Gender from the London School of Economics (2005), and was awarded her PhD in Gender and Cultural Studies by the University of Sydney (2012).
Sarah has published essays on feminism, whiteness, lesbian sexuality, intimacy, and hook-up culture. Affiliated with Affect Studies and working with critical immanent approaches, she is especially interested in the relationship between cultural form, experimental and other modes of writing, and the state of the world as expressed by cultural politics. Sarah joined MCCS in 2019, having worked previously at LSE, the University of Surrey and the London College of Communication.
Image credit: Julien Martinez Leclerc / LCC
Teaching
Co-Convenor BA Media and Communications
Contemporary Feminist Media Cultures (module convenor)
Culture, Society and the Individual (module convenor)
Doing Cultural Studies (contributing lecturer)
TV and After (contributing lecturer)
Moving Image and Spectatorship (contributing lecturer)
Publications and research outputs
Article
- He Said, She Said Cefai, Sarah. 2024. He Said, She Said. European Journal of Cultural Studies, ISSN 1367-5494
- Consent-deception: A feminist cultural media theory of commonsense consent Cefai, Sarah. 2024. Consent-deception: A feminist cultural media theory of commonsense consent. Feminist Theory, 25(3), pp. 471-492. ISSN 1464-7001
- Lauren Berlant on Genre Cefai, Sarah. 2023. Lauren Berlant on Genre. Media Theory, 7(2), pp. 267-284. ISSN 2557-826X
Book Section
- Feminist Aesthetics of Resistance Cefai, Sarah. 2022. Feminist Aesthetics of Resistance. In: Todd W. Reeser, ed. The Routledge Companion to Gender and Affect. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 227-236. ISBN 9780367492014
- Exit Wounds of Feminist Theory Cefai, Sarah. 2022. Exit Wounds of Feminist Theory. In: Joanna Zylinska, ed. The Future of Media. London: Goldsmiths Press, pp. 157-174. ISBN 9781913380144
- Contemporary Feminist Media Cultures Cefai, Sarah. 2020. Contemporary Feminist Media Cultures. In: Karen Ross, ed. The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 9781119429104
Conference or Workshop Item
- Trust, Mistrust and AI: Intimacy, Consent, Affect Cefai, Sarah. 2023. 'Trust, Mistrust and AI: Intimacy, Consent, Affect'. In: Trust, Mistrust and AI: Intimacy, Consent, Affect. University of New South Wales, Australia.
- Consent-Deception in the Hyper-Aesthetic Present: A Feminist Cultural Media Theory of Commonsense Consent Cefai, Sarah. 2022. 'Consent-Deception in the Hyper-Aesthetic Present: A Feminist Cultural Media Theory of Commonsense Consent'. In: Postdigital Intimacies and the Networked Public-Private. Coventry University, United Kingdom 24 - 25 November 2022.
- Workshopping Consent’s Data Cultures Cefai, Sarah. 2022. 'Workshopping Consent’s Data Cultures'. In: Gender, Digital Culture and Consent. University of Queensland, Australia 14 July 2022.
Edited Journal
- Mediating Affect Cefai, Sarah, ed. 2018. Mediating Affect, Cultural Studies, 32(1). 0950-2386
- Cartographies of Belonging: The Marketisation of Desire Through Media, Practice and Place Cefai, Sarah, ed. 2014. Cartographies of Belonging: The Marketisation of Desire Through Media, Practice and Place, Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 21(5). 0966-369X
Project
- Managing Expectations: Reassessing the Feminist Promise of Consent Cefai, Sarah. 2025 - 2026 Managing Expectations: Reassessing the Feminist Promise of Consent.
Report
- Analysing 'Media Lives': Time, Change and Dynamics of Media Literacy Cefai, Sarah and Couldry, Nick. 2016. Analysing 'Media Lives': Time, Change and Dynamics of Media Literacy. Documentation. London School of Economics, London.
Show/Exhibition
- The Flood Cefai, Sarah. 2022. The Flood. UNDEFINED.
Areas of supervision
Sarah welcomes applications from prospective PhD candidates who are interested in developing projects in the following areas:
- Affect Studies
- Cultural Studies and Cultural Theory
- Ecology, Geography & the Environmental Humanities
- Feminist Philosophy
- Intimacy
- Radical Philosophy, Epistemology and Methodology