Associate ProfessorKiran Pienaar

Kiran Pienaar is an Associate Professor in Sociology, with expertise in gender, sexuality and health. She is also an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS), La Trobe University, an honorary Principal Research Fellow at the Burnet Institute and an honorary Research Associate at the Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction (CSSR) research programme, Rhodes University, South Africa. She has a multidisciplinary background in Gender Studies, Sociology and Applied Linguistics. Kiran's theoretical interests include feminist science studies, queer theory and new materialisms. Her research program centres on two key areas: 1) gender, sexuality and the body, particularly in relation to LGBTQ+ cultures; and 2) the social dimensions of health. She is a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP24) titled 'Understanding the role of trauma in alcohol and other drug-related problems'. Applying a feminist lens, the project explores experiences of trauma and addiction, and the turn to trauma-informed care in drug treatment. In 2025, Kiran received a special commendation and was runner-up in Deakin's Mid-Career Researcher Award.

Kiran's research has contributed new understandings of the performativity of drugs in shaping queer subjectivities; ontologies of addiction and the self; 'more-than-human' forms of care; and the impact of public policy on minoritised communities. She has published on topics related to gender, drugs, 'addiction' and the self; biopolitics, public health and drug policy. Kiran's research has appeared in leading journals including Sexualities, Social Science & Medicine, International Journal of Drug Policy, and Sociological Review. Her first book Politics in the Making of HIV/AIDS in South Africa was published by Palgrave.

Kiran co-edited a collection titled Narcofeminisms: Revisioning Drug Use. Inspired by narcofeminist activism, it considers the political potential of drug consumption as a mode of resistance to dominant social orders. Reviews have praised the volume for its contribution to feminist and critical drug scholarship: 'a provocative and compelling collection [...] In bringing narcofeminist activism in conversation with sociology, the collection not only provides sophisticated new frameworks for examining alcohol and other drug practices, it also imagines a new politics of worldbuilding with far-reaching implications for responding to other controversial issues.' (Adrian Farrugia, La Trobe University). 'It is too rare that such a truly generative provocation emerges from conversations between scholarship, activism and advocacy [...] Those of us who find ourselves endlessly stuck in appeals to 'move beyond' binaries of pleasure and pain relief, will and compulsion, agency and vulnerability, and cis/white/Global North viewpoints are cheering at these examples of how to do it, and the glorious up-yours attitude that animates so many of them.' (kylie valentine, UNSW)

Kiran has worked on several Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded projects, on topics including diagnostic testing, experiences of 'addiction' and trauma-informed care (DP24). She was a Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery Project exploring LGBTQ drug use, and is currently leading a Deakin Science & Society Network (SSN)-funded project on sexual consent and intoxication. She recently led an interdisciplinary project applying a feminist lens to explore COVID-19 responses and practices of care.

International engagement and service

Kiran is a Co-Editor of the international feminist journal Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience. She serves on the international editorial boards of the journals International Journal of Drug Policy, Health Sociology Review, Harm Reduction Journal and Contemporary Drug Problems. She is an invited international member of the Centre for Critical Global Change (Goldsmiths, University of London).