Dr. Eleanor S. Armstrong

I am a Space Research Fellow at University of Leicester (2024-7), and the Early Career Research Lead for the University of Leicester’s Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space. I am growing the Constellations Lab: Outer Space + Feminism as part of my work at Leicester, making this a space for feminist social studies of outer space. If you would like to be affiliated with the Constellations Lab be in touch!

My research focuses on how culture shapes and is shaped by science. The primary arch of my research has an emphasis on the coproduction of space science and culture through the lenses of feminist science and technology studies theory. My research also explores and troubles the constructions of technology, natural history, mineralogical and geological museums and culture, and how we might understand them beyond being collections of objective science.  

I contribute to emerging fields of social studies of outer space and Queer STS; based on feminist STS, queer museum studies, critical geography, and feminist science education foundations.

I wrote my PhD at UCL (UK, 2020) and have held research-focused postdoctoral positions at University of Delaware (USA, 2021) and Stockholm University (Sweden, 2022-4). I have also held a range of visiting positions, at University of Cambridge (Visiting Researcher, 2021; Natural History Humanities Fellow 2025-6), the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (Visiting Researcher, 2022), University of York (Honorary Researcher, 2023-6), UCL (Honorary Researcher 2024-2027), NYU Gallatin (Visiting Scholar, 2024), and University of Vienna (Guest Professor, 2024).

I have been a consultant for, amongst other places, the Technisches Museum Wien's 'This is (not) Rocket Science' project (funded through the OeAD/BMBWF 2022-25), Oxford University Museum of Natural History, The Science Museum Group, and the Futurium Museum Berlin.

Biography for public use (dated 2026):

Eleanor S Armstrong is a Space Research Fellow at the University of Leicester, UK, where she leads the Constellations Lab (on Outer Space & Feminism), and is Early Career Lead at the Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space. She was awarded her PhD at University College London, UK, in 2020; and since then has held positions at the University of Delaware and Stockholm University, and visiting positions at, among others, the University of Cambridge, Ingenium Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation, New York University, and University of Vienna. Armstrong is Trustee of Pride in STEM.

Her research explores primarily on queer feminist approaches to social studies of outer space, particularly the presentation of femininities, feminisms, and femmes in public discourses about outer space. This work has been published in journals such as Queer-Feminist Science and Technology Studies Forum; Quest: History of Space Flight Quarterly, and in edited volumes including Space Feminisms, Queering Science Communication  and Routledge Handbook on Critical Social Studies of Outer Space. She has been an invited speaker at internationally prestigious institutions: London Science Museum, Swedish National Heritage Board, American Museum of Natural History, LEONARDO, NASA, European Space Agency, and has been a featured guest on the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Podcast ‘AirSpace,’ and on BBC Radio 1. 

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 consulting with museums, 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. 

With 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. The conferences had significant global reach (~450 registrants in each 2020 and 2023, in 2023 representing 52 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 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.