Currently I am Research Application Manager at the Alan Turing Institute, where my work revolves around the democratisation of access to digital twin technology. I will help in providing open and reproducible computational and social tools that are freely accessible to the UK research and innovation communities. As a Research Application Manager, my role prioritises the user perspective in the development of research software by researchers and engineers and helps stakeholders understand the outputs from their research in a larger perspective.
I am a performance scholar and historian by training, holding a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance from The Graduate Center, CUNY. My Digital Humanities dissertation project analyzed networks of itinerant drag performers around New York and along the Eastern Seaboard in the 1930s as part of a collective art form that brought queerness with them to towns and cities around the area. It was awarded a Connect New York grant for its innovative use of digital methods in Theatre and Performance.
In my previous position, I was a Research Software Engineer at the British Library and The Alan Turing Institute on the Living with Machines research project, which combines large-scale digitized historical collections with data science and computational methods. Before that, I was responsible for building nation-wide infrastructure and community for digital humanities across several higher education institutions across the U.S. My conference participation has been centered around topics such as the Digital Humanities, the Public Humanities, and on how to leverage digital technology for effective pedagogy.
I have written on topics ranging from queer indie wrestlers, boylesque and male-identified strippers in neo-burlesque, and the influence of RuPaul’s Drag Race on the livelihood and aesthetics of contemporary New York City drag queens. You can also find me on the Steering Committee of HASTAC, the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory.