Justin Clemens

Justin Clemens is an Associate Professor in Literary Studies within the School of Culture and Communication, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Melbourne. He earned his Doctorate in Research, Masters by Research, and Bachelors Degree with Honours from the University of Melbourne. Throughout his career at the University of Melbourne, he has held significant roles including Convenor of the Critical Research at Melbourne (CRAM) research group, and is a member of the Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy (MSCP) and the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy (ASCP).

Clemens specializes in the intersection of literary studies, psychoanalysis, and contemporary European philosophy, with a particular emphasis on the relationships between poetry, psychology, and philosophy in Romantic and post-Romantic literature. Key figures in his work include Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Alain Badiou, alongside themes such as slavery and technology. He has been awarded Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) in 2023 and has secured multiple Australian Research Council grants, including three Discovery Projects—most recently Journals in Theory: Practices of Academic Judgment (2021-2025)—and a Future Fellowship for Australian Poetry Today (2015-2021). His major publications encompass scholarly monographs and edited volumes such as Barron Field in New South Wales (Melbourne University Press, 2023, with Thomas H. Ford), Psychoanalysis is an Antiphilosophy (Edinburgh University Press, 2013), What is Education? (Edinburgh University Press, 2017, edited with A.J. Bartlett), and The Afterlives of Georges Perec (Edinburgh University Press, 2017, edited with Rowan Wilken). Clemens also publishes poetry and criticism; his poetry collections include A Foul Wind (Hunter Publishers, 2022) and The Mundiad (Hunter Publishers, 2013), the latter shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize. His contributions appear in prominent journals like Meanjin, Overland, and Arena Magazine.

Professional Email: jclemens@unimelb.edu.au