Eleanor Sophie Armstrong (she/her) received her doctorate from University College London in 2020, and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Delaware’s Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences in the Klinger Lab. Dr Armstrong is a fundamentally interdisciplinary scholar, previously having studied Art & Science Central Saint Martins College of Art, and Chemistry (with a Masters in Astrochemistry) at the University of Oxford. Dr Armstrong’s research interweaves social studies of space sciences, STEM education, and speculative futures.
Research on space is fundamentally interlinked with the society that does that research. Whilst in the Klinger Lab, Dr Armstrong’s work will look at space science infrastructures – such as telescopes, analogue research sites, or launch sites – around the world, and their interactions with local communities and local environments. Emerging areas of interest are in circumpolar regions and sites with existing contested land and governance structures.
An emphasis on pedagogies of informal STEM education was the focus of Dr Armstrong’s doctoral research at UCL, which looked at who is represented in space science galleries in three London museums. Queer feminist approaches to focusing on representations of gender and sexuality were utilised to explore the scientists, science, politics, economics and justifications present in these galleries. Alongside this, she’s worked as a freelance informal STEM educator; run Behind the Glass Cabinet a podcast on STEM museum objects; and as a science tutor in Chemistry, Physics and Maths.
Curatorial dreaming and speculative design research form the dual foundations on which Dr Armstrong’s speculative futures research relies. Curatorial dreaming encourages researchers to reimagine the potentials of gallery narratives, visible in Dr Armstrong’s development, delivery and theorisation of Queering the Science Museum. Picking up the threads interest in the interplay or artistic and scientific futures; Dr Armstrong co-leads design studio ExoMoan. Current design-led research at the studio is investigating interplanetary sex-tech futures, and how a focus on consent, care, queer pleasure, and intimacy in Outer Space can radically resist colonial space futures.
Dr Armstrong has won funding to support her work from the Universities Space Research Association (USA), UCL Grand Challenges (UK), Singapore National Science Foundation (Sing), the British Society for the History of Science (UK) amongst others. You can read more about Dr Armstrong’s work on her twitter (@EllieTheElement) or her website (ellietheelement.squarespace.com).