معرفی
Lara Karaian is a Professor cross-appointed to the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Department of Law and Legal Studies, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Women’s and Gender Studies at Carleton University. She is also an adjunct faculty member at York University’s Socio-Legal Studies department. Her research focuses on intersections between sexuality, technology, legal regulation, and embodiment, with grants from SSHRC and expertise in cybersex, sextech, and digital expression. She holds a Ph.D. in Gender and Sexuality Studies from York University and an MA and BA from York and the University of Toronto.
Research interests include critical criminology, posthumanism, and queer theory applied to digital-age legal frameworks. Her SSHRC-funded projects examine sextech’s impact on legal constructs of 'sex crime' and teenage sexting’s regulation. Notable works address sex robots, deepfake pornography, and legal interpretations of child pornography laws.
Consulting roles include advising the Canadian Bar Association, Kids Help Phone, and parliamentary committees on sexting policies. Supervision highlights include over a dozen graduate/undergraduate theses on topics like revenge porn, mental health narratives, and sex work stigma. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges law, sociology, and feminist materialist theories.
Publications span Sexualities, Law, Culture and the Humanities, and Crime Media Culture, with a focus on digital sexual expression, legal ambiguity, and marginalized communities. Active in policy dialogues, her work bridges academic research with public advocacy on technology’s socio-legal impacts.
