Eva Gray
Job Title
PhD Student
Research interests
Research interests
My research interests center around the social construction of technology, namely the gendering of the automobile and the culture(s) that surround them. I study the car as a technological and cultural artifact, and the identity constructions it enables, as masculinities and femininities can be partially defined in relation to technical objects and the actions that surround them. Our increasingly technologically-mediated interaction with the natural world is of particular interest, and how STS-informed perspectives can tell us more about our relationships to our environments, technologies and each other.
At the moment, I am examining the role of new electric car racing leagues in facilitating electric vehicle (EV) adoption, as a technological testbed and a further entrenchment of the culture of private mobility. My current ESRC-funded project, Electric Vehicles and the Race to Road Transfer: Identity, Culture and the Transition to Sustainable Mobility, centers around the emergent socio-technical identity of the EV. I am also co-authoring a chapter titled Gender, Diversity and Care for the upcoming Edward Elgar Handbook on Sustainable Lifestyles.
Background
My background has been in Science and Technology Studies since I was an undergraduate at Vassar College in New York. I studied STS, Sociology and Women's Studies, writing my senior thesis on female race car drivers based on my employment and fieldwork for four years at Lime Rock Park, a historic track in Northwestern Connecticut.
I came to the University of Edinburgh as a Vassar Maguire Fellow for my Masters by Research in STS studying Formula E and Extreme E. My PhD project is a continuation of this work, focusing on electric car racing, gendered narratives around driving and environmentalism.
I tutor on Social Theory in Sociology and on various STS courses including Technology in Society, Energy Policy and Sustainability, and Science, Nature and Environment.