About

I am a writer, researcher and lecturer. My interests lie in contemporary art and culture, with a focus on Britain from the 1970s onwards. I am particularly invested in queer, feminist, and lesbian art and social histories, and in their intersection with British photo theory.

In 2019 I completed a CHASE/AHRC funded PhD at the University of Sussex, titled “Hurled Toward the Future: The Queer Subjunctive in British Lesbian Photography, 1987-1996.” In 2020 I held a Paul Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, and I am currently working towards publication of a manuscript based on my research.

With Theo Gordon, I am co-author of the forthcoming book Photography: A Queer History (Octopus/Ilex, Autumn 2023). Recent writing has been published in Third Text (2021); Journal of American Studies (2021); and the edited volume The Art of Feminism (2019). The essay “Lesbians Talk: British Lesbian Politics and the Sex Wars” is published in Resist, Organize, Build: Feminist and Queer Activism in Britain and the United States During the Long 1980s (SUNY Press, 2022). In 2019, I contributed research on the late photographer Tessa Boffin to the exhibition Hot Moment at Auto Italia. An open letter regarding Boffin’s work, co-authored with Laura Guy and Mason Leaver-Yap, can be read here. More recently, I was research associate for the 2022 exhibition Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics at the Barbican.

My teaching spans art history and fine art students. I currently lecture at Central Saint Martins on the MA Contemporary Photography; Practices and Philosophies and the BA Fine Art (Critical Studies). I have also held posts at Newcastle University; University for the Creative Arts, Rochester; University of Sussex and Durham University.

I have presented widely at conferences across the UK and internationally. Recent guest lectures include the Photographers’ Gallery; Studio Voltaire; University of Cambridge; Jerwood Space, London; and a keynote conversation with the photographer Sunil Gupta for the closing conference of the HERA funded research project ‘Cruising the Seventies: Unearthing Pre-HIV/AIDS Queer Sexual Cultures.’

In addition to my manuscript project, I am developing new research around avant-garde art practices in Vancouver, Canada during the 1970s and 80s. I am especially interested in photography, performance, and the visualisation of violence (both physical and spatial/geographical).

I welcome invitations to speak and write. Please get in touch via the contact page, rather than through university email.