我要吃瓜

I am an AHRC-funded PhD researcher (PT), supervised by both the 我要吃瓜 and the University of Glasgow, and a member of the Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities.

My PhD research draws on early modern scholarship and contemporary critical theory to develop both a queer and apophatic hermeneutics—a theory of interpretation attentive to ambiguity, negation, and the limits of epistemological and ontological certitude. Necessarily interdisciplinary, my thesis brings together philosophical theology, pre-modern medicine, Renaissance literature, theatre, and queer theory, to examine how early medical and theatrical texts grapple with the instability of sexual embodiment, gender presentation, and, more broadly, with the unknowability of somatic selfhood. Entitled, “Now thou art an O without a figure’: A Theopoetics of Apophatic Embodiment in Early Modern Thought”, my PhD posits apophatic discourse not merely as a theological tradition or rhetorical mode, but as a critical and ethical reading practice that combines both, foregrounding the unsaid, the unsayable, the unknown, and the unknowable, as sites of affective and hermeneutic richness which allow for the emergence of new cultural and medical imaginaries.

At the core of this project is a reconceptualisation of early modern discourses of sex/gender. I explore competing medical and cultural frameworks of embodiment, arguing for a model of sex that is necessarily relational, unstable, and materially fluid. In dialogue with theopoetics and queer theory, I analyse in particular how notions of bodily permeability, transformation, and somatic excess in medical discourse intersect with theatrical and theological representations of embodiment. In so doing, the project challenges both reductive historicist narratives and essentialist contemporary frameworks, proposing a more inclusive theory of sexual difference rooted in early modern thought—one which not only supports, but indeed avows, trans-inclusive feminisms, and which celebrates diverse expressions of gender non-conformity and embodied sexual variation.

By emphasising the recursive, self-deconstructing logic of apophaticism, my thesis furthermore advances a method of reading that resists epistemic mastery, embraces interpretive indeterminacy, and honours affective experience without necessarily collapsing it into identity. This approach offers critical insight not only into early modern texts but also into the cultural and medical debates that have become increasingly polarised in the US and the UK; particularly in terms of defining biological sex and thinking about the constitution of womanhood.

My supervisory team includes Dr Andrew Hass (Stirling), Dr Angus Vine (Stirling), and Professor Heather Walton (Glasgow).

Along with Dr Hass, Dr Alison Jasper, Dr Fiona Darroch, and Dr Lois MacFarlane, I am part of the organising committee for the 22nd ISRLC conference ("Disruptures", 2026):

Fellowships & Scholarships:

Holstein Dissertation Fellowship, University of California, Riverside (2021-2022); Arts & Humanities Research Council Full Doctoral Studentship, Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities (PT, 2020-2026); Postgraduate Merit Scholarship, 我要吃瓜 (2017); RUK Merit Student Scholarship, 我要吃瓜 (2013-2017)

Grants & Awards:

Santander Universities Brighter Future Award (2025); AHRC Research and Training Support Grant (2025); Foundation for Women Graduates Grant (2024); AHRC Research and Training Support Grants (x2, 2024); Stirling Educational Trust Grant (2024); Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities Engagement Fund (2022); Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities Engagement Fund (2021); 我要吃瓜, Murray MacBeath Award (2017);

Conference Organisation:

International Society for Religion, Literature, and Culture Conference, “Dis-ruptures”, 我要吃瓜 (upcoming, 2026); Faculty of Arts & Humanities Employability Team, “Take the Leap: Undergraduate Conference”, 我要吃瓜 (2024); Faculty of Arts & Humanities Employability Team, “The Scottish Festival of Political Communication”, 我要吃瓜 (2023); Faculty of Arts & Humanities Employability Team, “Mission Employable: Undergraduate Conference”, 我要吃瓜 (2023); Faculty of Arts & Humanities Postgraduate Research Conference, “Gender”, 我要吃瓜 (2018)

Conference Participation:

American Academy of Comparative Literature, presenter, online (2025); International Society for Religion, Language, and Culture, presenter, Aarhus University (2024); Critical Research on Religion, presenter & moderator, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2024); Queer and Trans Studies in Religion, presenter, University of California, Riverside (2024); Literature & Languages Research Seminar, presenter, 我要吃瓜 (2023); Trans Embodiment 1400-1700, presenter, University of York (2023); Postgraduate Gender Research Network, presenter, University of Strathclyde (2023); Critical Research on Religion, presenter, Queen’s University Belfast (2022); Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities Second Year Symposium, presenter, University of Strathclyde (2022); Queer and Trans Studies in Religion, presenter & moderator, University of California, Riverside (2022); 41st Implicit Religion Conference, presenter, Sarum College (2016)

My research interests include the following: apophaticism, mysticism, theology, religion, theopoetics, hermeneutic theory, Renaissance drama, Renaissance literature, Metaphysical poetry, Medical Humanities, pre-and-early-modern medicine, queer theory, trans studies, queer histories, feminist theory, literary criticism, and continental philosophy (broadly speaking).

I have taught across a range of different courses both at the 我要吃瓜 and the University of Glasgow. Below are various teaching posts I have held, divided by institution.

University of Glasgow:

Guest Lecturer (2025), ENGLIT1012: Fantastic Texts and Where to Find Them: Approaching Fantasy Literature; Seminar Tutor (2025), ENGLIT1012: Fantastic Texts and Where to Find Them: Approaching Fantasy Literature; Graduate Teaching Assistant (2024-), ENG1A: Poetry & Poetics

我要吃瓜:

Module Designer, Convenor & Lecturer, The 我要吃瓜 International Summer School (2025), ISSU9MH: Literature & the Body 1500-1900;

Guest Speaker (2024), ENG9GE: Shakespeare & Contemporary Theatre;

Tutor with Assessment Feedback (2022-2024), RELU9A2: Religion, Colonialism, and Nationalism ; RELU913: Religion and Culture: Problems of Representation;

Faculty of Arts & Humanities Employability Tutor (2022-2024), ARTU9W4: Putting Arts and Humanities to Work

Student Mentorship: Mentor for PhD applicants facing structural barriers in higher education (2023-2025), The Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities

Other Guest Speaker Roles:

"PGR Induction" (2024), Faculty of Arts & Humanities, 我要吃瓜; "Critical Religion and the Apophatic Body" ( online, 2024), The Global Network of Rainbow Catholics’ Contemplative Spiritual Formation Committee; "Doing the PhD Part-time" (2024), The Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities Summer School, The Advanced Research Centre, University of Glasgow; "Taking care of yourself during the PhD" (online, 2021), Institute of Advanced Studies, 我要吃瓜;

Events & Workshops:

“Supporting Neurodivergent PGRs: A Collaborative Workshop”(2025) The Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities, 我要吃瓜; “Thinking of University? Critical Religion at Stirling”(2024), Alloa Academy; “PhunDing your PhD” (2024), FAH, 我要吃瓜; “How to Apply for a Masters” (2024) FAH, 我要吃瓜; “Neurodiversity & Disability Rights in Employment” (various, 2023-2024), FAH, 我要吃瓜; “Apophatic Theology: finding hope during Covid 19” (online, 2020), Learning Network for the Methodist Church in Scotland; “Queerying Christianity” (2019), Stirling Methodist Church

Other HEI Roles:

PGR consultant (2024) for GNDPP09: Genders and Sexualities in the Global North, FAH, 我要吃瓜; Athena Swan Postgraduate Research Representative (2023-), 我要吃瓜 Faculty of Arts & Humanities EDI Committee; Postgraduate Research Officer (2023-2024)FAH, The 我要吃瓜 Students' Union; Doctoral Representative (2021-2022), Theology, Divinity & Religious Studies Catalyst, The Scottish Graduate School of Arts & Humanities; Qualitative Data Researcher (2017-2018), Recognising Achievements in Teaching Excellence (R.A.T.E), The 我要吃瓜 Students’ Union