Dr Eleanor Armstrong

Eleanor S Armstrong is a Space Research Fellow at the University of Leicester, UK, where she is building the Constellations Lab (on Outer Space & Feminism). The overarching focus of her research is on the coproduction of physical sciences and culture. She was awarded her PhD at University College London (UK) in 2020; and since then has held positions at the University of Delaware (USA, 2021-2) and Stockholm University (Sweden, 2022-2024), and is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of York (UK) Department of Sociology and University College London (UK) Department of Science and Technology Studies. 

Dr Armstrong has previously held visiting positions at, among others, the University of Cambridge, Ingenium Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation, New York University, and University of Vienna. She has been an invited speaker at internationally prestigious public institutions: London Science Museum; Swedish National Heritage Board; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea;  American Museum of Natural History; LEONARDO; NASA; European Space Agency (ESA) and has been a featured guest on the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Podcast ‘AirSpace,’ and on BBC Radio 1. 

Her primary research focuses on queer feminist approaches to social studies of outer space, particularly the presentation of femininities, feminisms, and femmes in public discourses and education about outer space, published in journals such as Queer-Feminist Science and Technology Studies Forum; Quest: History of Space Flight Quarterly; and Cultural Studies of Science Education and in edited volumes including Space Feminisms, Queering Science Communication and Routledge Handbook on Critical Social Studies of Outer Space. Dr Armstrong is guest editor of the Theme Issue "Earthly Entanglements of Outer Space" for Environment and Planning D with Professor Julie Klinger. 

Dr Armstrong has a secondary interest in museum practices around physical sciences and their heritage (including geology, physics, chemistry, and engineering). She has published this work in journals such as Museum & Society and Journal of Natural Science Collections; and in forthcoming books including New Light on Old Stuff (an Artefacts Collection) and The New Museum Paradigm. This strand of her work also sees her running activist interventions around queer heritage in science and technology museums (e.g. 'Queering the Science Museum' at the London Science Museum; or 'Bridging Binaries LGBTQ+ Museum Tours' at the Whipple Museum for the History of Science and the Sedgwick Earth Sciences Museum) or with students and scholars to develop their own critical interventions like the "Unearthing the Collection" program co-run with Kopo Oromeng and University of Delaware and New York University Gallatin School. With Dr Camille-Mary Sharp, she is the guest editor of the special issue "Mobilising Museum Minerals" (No. 22, Vol 2-3) for Museum and Society. 

Dr Armstrong has successfully won funds in the US, Canada, Sweden and the UK; including being a lead researcher on a Swedish Research Council funding, and a collaborator on national funding from Canada's SSHRC. She is a partner on on the Technisches Museum Wien's 'This is (not) Rocket Science' project (funded through the OeAD/BMBWF 2022-25). In 2019, with funding from UCL, Armstrong ran the podcast "Behind the Glass Cabinet" which is available online. She holds multiple positions of trust, such as sitting on the UKRI STFC Advisory Panel for Public Engagement, and is Trustee of Pride in STEM. 

With Dr Divya M Persaud she built the conference Space Science in Context, a conference to connect scientists, humanities scholars, and activists working out the social situatedness of outer space. SSiC represents an exceptional commitment to broad and equitable public engagement in outer space. The conferences had significant global reach (~450 registrants in each 2020, 2023 and 2024, reaching registrants in on average 50 countries); and supported a high proportion of disabled participants through field-leading access measures. The conference has received media coverage in Nature, Science, in Chemistry, and CNRS and was cited as an example of innovative work in NASA’s Decadal Survey 2021.

With designer Akvilė Terminatė, Armstrong runs EXO-MOAN a design studio that explores sex, intimacy, care, and consent in the contexts of outer space. Their work has been included in the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 for the Lithuanian Pavilion, and the CITY X Venice Virtual Pavilion; and featured in print media including The Future of Sex and IFL Science, and as invited guests on the ‘Astroholic’ Podcast.  

You can learn more about Dr Armstrong's work, or find resources from her projects at ellietheelement.squarespace.com or on social media @ellietheelement