Profile

Nick (they/them) is an ESRC fully-funded queer scholar and activist working at the intersections between queer, feminist, and drag theory. They have an MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture from the University of Manchester, and an MA in Social Science Research from the University of Warwick. Nick's BA(Hons) was in English Literature and Theatre Studies and they are currently working on their PhD looking at drag performance, using auto/theory, auto/ethnography, and queer theory as a way of exploring the potential/transformative power in drag performance. Currently their research is focusing on posthuman and non-gendered drag performance.

Nick performs, and does research, as drag performer Ibi Profane. As their PhD has progressed, Ibi and Nick have become inseparable. Ibi's work as a drag performer and academic has led them to work with international drag artists, such as Dr. Cheddar GorgeousLink opens in a new window, HungryLink opens in a new window, and Miz CrackerLink opens in a new window.

They are the co-founder and co-convenor of queer/disrupt. See below for more details.

They are the Student Chair of the Rainbow TaskforceLink opens in a new window - an advisory and strategic guiding body which makes recommendations to the University on issues involving lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, undefined/undecided, asexual/aromantic/agender, and other related identities. Please feel free to email Nick with any questions or queries that you are concerned about, so they can share them with the other chairs and raise it at the next taskforce meeting.

Nick was part of seminar series organising committee for the Centre for the Study of Women and GenderLink opens in a new window for 2020/21 and are a human library book, with The Human LibraryLink opens in a new window project. They are a programme tutor on Warwick SU's Active Bystander Intervention course and has helped develop the content for the course and will be teaching in the Autumn Term 2021.

Research Interests

Nick is interested in drag performance and subversions of gender(ed) performance, and works in the relatively new field of queer and drag theory. Their primary interest is on theoretical readings of form and bodies in drag performance and how this reflects/inverts contemporary gender(ed) constructions, and are currently focused on posthuman and non-gendered drag performance. Their research has covered subjects in popular culture and performance, from structures of the graphic novel to theoretical analysis in queer film.

They have a multidisciplinary approach that explores the broad fields of feminist/queer theory, gender/sexuality, literary/cultural theory, media, visual culture, and performance and are influenced through their training as a transdisciplinary scholar, as they felt the focus on a singular disciplinary approach limited the scope of their research. Nick is also involved in using Ibi Profane as a stand up comic for research and commentary in a world where boundaries of humour and the social/political are becoming more blurred.

The use and application of irony is of particular interest to Nick.

queer/disrupt (on hiatus)

Nick is also the co-founder and convenor of queer/disrupt, a research collective whose committee is comprised of students and researchers working in and around queer spaces, topics, and people. It has an international reach and an audience in the many thousands. The group's other founder is Hannah Ayres.

Anyone is welcome at the events queer/disrupt run, and the website can be found at www.queerdisrupt.com, including a list of all their upcoming events. Their work with queer/disrupt has connected them to international scholars working in trans and queer theory, such as Prof. Susan Stryker, Prof. Jack Halberstam, and Prof. Heather Love. They have also worked with internationally recognised artists and performers and there are upcoming events involving award-winning and ground-breaking researchers and artists in the academic year 21/22.

queer/disrupt also have a podcast series, which Nick organises and often features in, which can be found hereLink opens in a new window.

In 2021, they were involved in co-organising the queer/disrupt conference Mainstreaming Queerness: The New Queer VanguardLink opens in a new window (10-11th June) with Hannah Ayres. The keynote speakers were Prof. Jack Halberstam and Prof. Heather Love.

In 2022, queer/disrupt hosted the 'Queer(ing) Religion' conference, to an international audience.

queer/disrupt presentations

Nick has publicly lectured on queer history and drag for queer/disrupt and other organisations. They are regularly invited to present their work to a public audience including:

- Ibi Profane's Dragged Through HistoryLink opens in a new window
- Crisis in Community: Key Events in UK Queer HistoryLink opens in a new window
- A Spotlight on... Section 28Link opens in a new window
- A Queer Talk on Queer HistoryLink opens in a new window (commissioned for the Herbert Art Gallery and MuseumLink opens in a new window)
- Queer is in the Heart: A History of Disco and Queerness with Ibi Profane (for the SHOUTLink opens in a new window Festival)

These can be found, with many other interesting talks, on the queer/disrupt YouTube channelLink opens in a new window.

Academic Writing/Publications

Special Guest Editor of Sexualities journal (forthcoming, 2024)

Main Contributor to The LGBTQ+ History Book (April 2023)

'The Monumental Body: Hungry and the Performative Post-Human' (April, 2023)

‘The Tranimal: Throwing Gender Out of Drag?’, book chapter in Contemporary Drag Practices and Performers: Drag in a Changing SceneLink opens in a new window, Bloomsbury (January, 2020)

Nick has also been asked to provide expert comment for Warwick University on issues relating to gender.

Expert Comments/Other media:

Five things you (probably) didn't know about Pantomime Dames!Link opens in a new window

Serving C*nt - How the Internet is Reclaiming the C-Word - Huffington PostLink opens in a new window

Warwick's PhD Drag QueenLink opens in a new window - BBC Radio

Academic Presentations

A lecture for Coventry University 'Deviance and Desire' sociology module, November 2021.

Nick was invited to speak at the English Dept Undergraduate feminist seminar group at Warwick, January 2021.

Autoethnography: Confessions, Questions & Provocations with Dr Jaime Iglesias for The Ethnography Circle at the University of Warwick for the Warwick Business School, November 2020

Research Seminar on Tranimalism Drag, School of Cross-faculty Studies, January 2018

"Ugly as Fuck”: The Martha Stewart Lifestyle; or, how does Tranimalism Drag Sashay Away from
Gender?, at Talking Bodies: An International, Interdisciplinary Conference on Identity, Sexuality and
Representation, Institute of Gender Studies at the University of Chester, April 2017

“Skillful Artificer”: Artifice and the Comic Form in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home at Theorising the
Popular, Paper Title:, Liverpool Hope University (June 2016)

Insta: IbiProfane

Email: for PhD related concerns, please email nick dot cherryman at warwick dot ac dot uk