Andrea Quinlan

Associate Professor

andrea.quinlan@uwaterloo.ca

(519) 888-4567 x 47645

· Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University

· PhD, Sociology, York University

· MA, Sociology, University of Calgary

· BA (Honours) Sociology, University of Calgary

Research and Teaching Areas

· Sexual violence and the law

· Forensic science, technology, and medicine

· Feminist Technoscience

· Science and Technology Studies

· Sociolegal Studies

· Contemporary social theory

· Qualitative research methods

Current Research

My research explores intersections of law, medicine, science, and technology in criminal justice responses to sexual violence, and the influence of anti-violence movements on sexual assault law, policy, and institutional practice.

My primary SSHRC-funded research examines contemporary controversies over rape kits in the United States. I use rape kit backlogs and the controversies over at-home rape kits as windows into the politics and institutional practices of sexual assault forensics, law, and policing. In so doing, this project takes up broad theoretical questions about technological surveillance, scientific expertise, and state responses to gender-based violence.

With colleagues, I am also working on several projects:

1) A SSHRC-funded project on sexual assault care and forensics in rural and remote Ontario and Scotland (with co-investigators, Deborah White, Trent University; Lesley McMillan, Glasgow Caledonian University; Gethin Rees, Newcastle University)

2) A CIHR-funded project on activism and sexual violence on Canadian university campuses (with Elizabeth Quinlan [PI], University of Saskatchewan and Curtis Fogel, Brock University).

3) A SDRCC-funded project on gender-based digital violence in sport (with Curtis Fogel [PI], Brock University).

4) A SSHRC-funded project on sexual assault prevention in junior hockey in Canada (with Curtis Fogel [PI], Brock University).

Selected Publications

Books

Fogel, C., & Quinlan, A. (2023). Sexual assault in Canadian sport. University of British Columbia Press.

Quinlan, A. (2017). The technoscientific witness of rape: Contentious histories of law, feminism, and forensic science. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

Quinlan, E., & Quinlan, A., Fogel, C., & Taylor, G. (Eds.). (2017). Sexual violence at Canadian universities: Activism, institutional responses, and strategies for change. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Articles

Quinlan, A. (2021). The rape kit’s promise: Techno-optimism in the fight against the Backlog. Science as Culture, 30(3), 440-464.

Fogel, C., & Quinlan, A. (2021). Sexual assault in the locker room: Sexually violent hazing in Canadian sport. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 27(3), 353-372.

Quinlan, A., & Singh, R. (2020). COVID-19 and the paradox of visibility: Domestic violence and feminist caring labour in Canadian shelters. Feminist Studies, 46(3), 572-582.

Smele, S., Quinlan, A., & Fogel, C. (2019). Sexual Assault Policing and Justice for People with Developmental Disabilities. Violence & Victims, 34(5), 818-837.

Quinlan, A. (2019). Visions of Public Safety, Justice and Healing: The Making of the Rape Kit Backlog in the United States. Social & Legal Studies, 29(2), 225-245.

Quinlan, A., & Smele, S. (2017). The ‘problem’ of abuse in Ontario’s Social Inclusion Act: A critical exploration. Critical Social Policy, 37(1), 85-104.

Quinlan, A. (2016). Suspect survivors: Police investigation practices in sexual assault cases in Ontario, Canada. Women & Criminal Justice, 26(4), 301-318.

Quinlan, A. (2015). Technoscience and affected bodies. International Journal of Gender, Science, and Technology, 6(3), 330-345.