Katie Burke is a DPhil student whose thesis focuses on the American lesbian sex magazine On Our Backs, exploring how the countercultural lesbian erotic publication developed through and against the context of the 1980s feminist “sex wars”. The thesis uses On Our Backs as a vehicle through which to interrogate the multiple meanings and challenges of queer countercultural publishing, and the impact of queer publications upon lesbian identity-formation. Her chief research interests are lesbian sex-radicalism, butch-femme resurgence in the 1980s, D.I.Y. publishing, and the intersections between queer production and mass-market capitalism.
Prior to the DPhil, Katie completed a master’s degree in Queer History at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she graduated with Distinction. She previously earned a bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Oxford. In her free time, she's an avid cinemagoer, and recommends those interested in her research watch Bound (1996) for an On Our Backs cameo.
