The Glasgow School of Art

Queering Christ: trans-embodiments of Christ in late medieval visual and material culture

Academic History:

2010-2013: BA (Joint Hons) History and Art History, First Class, University of Nottingham

2014 - 2015: MLitt Medieval Studies, University of St Andrews

2015 – current: PhD in Medieval Studies, The Glasgow School of Art

Supervisors:

Professor Vicky Gunn

Research Interests:

• Medieval religion & the arts, Visual/textual culture, Manuscript studies, Materialism
• Medieval sexualities, (Trans)gender Studies, Pornography, BDSM aesthetic
• Torture, Pain, The Chalcedonian Body, The Body in Parts
• The Gaze, Medieval Blood, The Abject, Psychoanalysis

Grants/Awards:

John Drury Prize (University of Nottingham) for best dissertation at Undergraduate level in the School of Art History, 2013 (£100)

St Andrews Postgraduate Accommodation Award, 2014 (£1000)

SAIMS Essay Prize (University of St Andrews) for best piece of writing at Master's level in the School of Medieval History, 2015 (£100)

AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship (2015-ongoing)

SGSAH Cohort Development Fund travel bursary for attending the Stirling Being Human training workshop, 2015 (£28)

Kate Westoby travel bursary for attending the Gender & Medieval Studies conference, 2016 (£46)

CAPOD Graduate Conference grant, Re//Generate 2016 (£440)

St Andrews School of Art History funds for graduate Re//Generate conference 2016 (£700)

SGSAH Collaborative Doctoral Training Network grant for setting up ScotMEMs, Scotland's Medieval and Early Modern Postgraduate Research Networks, and associated training event, 2016 (£2500)

SGSAH Knowledge Exchange, Training & Industry Committee Fund for workshop 'Beyond Powerpoint', 2016 (£2000)

CAPOD Graduate Conference grant, Medieval Materialities 2017 (£500)

St Andrews School of Art History funds for graduate Medieval Materialities conference 2017 (£700)

SAIMS Conference grant, Medieval Materialities 2017 (£300)

SAIMS Conference grant, Gender and Transgression 2017 (500)

CAPOD Graduate Conference grant, Gender and Transgression 2017 (£350)

International Medieval Conference Leeds, Travel Bursary (£125.50)

Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship, Trans* Travel Fund ($250)

Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature (SSMLL) Research Travel Bursary (£150)

Travel bursaries to attend conferences in Reading, London, Warwick, Birmingham

British Library Labs award for Teaching and Learning, 2018 (£500)

Conference/Talks/Events:

The Naked Truth – A Sex Nerd’s Pub Quiz, 1 October 2015, part of the University of St Andrews Sexual Health Advice and Guidance week events, St Andrews

Emotions (public engagement talk), 28 November 2015, ‘Being human? An arts & humanities variety night’, part of University of Aberdeen’s Bringing the Humanities to Life events, Aberdeen

Grimestone's Book, Grimestone's Body: Freudian melancholy & creation of identity in the Advocates MS 18.7.21, (paper) 6-8 January 2016, Gender & Medieval Studies (GMS) Group conference on 'Gender & Emotions', Hull

Queer looks: gazing at Christ in a Veronese panel painting, (talk) 11 March 2016, Art History Postgraduate Forum, St Andrews

Medieval Materialities conference, 1st ed, Re//Generate - Materiality & the Afterlives of Things in the Middle Ages, 500-1500, (co-organizer) 6-7 May 2016, St Andrews

Jesus Christ Super(Porn)Star: BDSM & Pornography as methodology for late-medieval religion, (Paper), Northern & Early Medieval Interdisciplinary Conference Series (NEMICS) 'Medieval sexualities', 11-12 June 2016, UCL London

Methodologies & Practice in Medieval Early Modern Research, (organizer & panellist) 29th October 2016, Dundee

Trans/Gender/Human – Rediscovering genderqueer narratives in medieval sanctity, (Paper), ‘Not Just ‘Passing’ Through’ LGBTrans Talks, 18 Nov 2016, St Andrews

Medieval Materialities conference, 2nd ed, Encountering the Material Medieval, (organizer) 19-20 Jan 2017, St Andrews

No strings attached: emotional interaction with animated sculptures of crucified Christ (Paper) ‘Embodiment and New Materialism’ conference, 25-6 Feb 2017, Lancaster

Trans/Gender/Human – Rediscovering genderqueer narratives in medieval sanctity, (Paper) 'Sexing the Past’ LGBT History Conference, 3-5 March 2017, Liverpool

'His nakede bodi red himaked mid blode': The gore of the crucifixion in late medieval imagination, (Paper) ‘Fluid Physicalities’ conference, 10 March 2017, Birkbeck London

Guest curator for @WeTheHumanities Twitter account, 20-27 March 2017

Glasgow UL MS Gen 1111 (manuscript presentation) 31 March 2017, University of Glasgow Library, Special Collections

History and the LGBT: Filling in the gaps (talk), LGBTed Talks, 10 April 2017, St Andrews

'His nakede bodi red himaked mid blode': The gore of the crucifixion in late medieval imagination, (Paper), School of Art History Research Seminars, 12 April 2017, St Andrews

Grimestone’s book, Grimestone’s body: hybrid matter and creation of identity in the Advocates MS 18.7.21, (Paper), 'Hybrids, Hybridity and Liminality’ Conference, 20-21 April 2017, Reading

Medieval Mayhem! Children’s activity coordinator for MUSA Mayday event, St Andrews, 1 May 2017

Gender and Transgression conference, 9th ed (co-organizer), 3-5 May 2017, St Andrews

Human and trans-human experiences of pain in the late Middle Ages, (paper) Kalamazoo, International Congress of Medieval Studies, 'Gendered experiences of pain' panel, 11-14 May 2017

No strings attached: emotional interaction with animated sculptures of crucified Christ (Paper) ‘Powerful Objects’, EMREM Annual Symposium and Images of Research Exhibition, 18-19 May 2017, Birmingham

Winner of 1st prize at Images of Research Exhibition, 18-19 May 2017, Birmingham

Grimestone’s book, Grimestone’s body: volatile matter and creation of identity in the Advocates MS 18.7.21, ‘Bodies in Flux’ conference, 20 May 2017, Warwick

No strings attached: Embodied epistemology and the medieval animated sculptures of crucified Christ, ‘Curiosity and Cognition: Embodied Things 1400-1900’ conference, 16 June 2017, Cambridge

Things podcast, Cambridge, presenting my work on animated sculptures and participation in the roundtable that took place 16 June 2017, Cambridge (upcoming)

Liquid vision: seeing blood through material culture in the Christian Middle Ages (poster), Glasgow, SGSAH 2^nd year Symposium, 19 June 2017, Glasgow

'His nakede bodi red hi­maked mid blode': The gore of the crucifixion in late medieval imagination, (paper and panel organizer), Leeds, International Medieval Congress, 'Otherness of God in Late Medieval Religion' panel, 3-6 July 2017

Publications:

No strings attached: emotional interaction with animated sculptures of crucified Christ, (journal paper), North Street Review 20 (2017), published online March 29, 2017, <https://northstreetreview.com/2017/03/29/no-strings-attached-emotional-interaction-with-animated-sculptures-of-crucified-christ/>

Trans citation practices — a quick-and-dirty guideline, published on November 27, 2018 < https://medium.com/@MxComan/trans-citation-practices-a-quick-and-dirty-guideline-9f4168117115>

Training:

Research with Manuscripts (CAPOD course), St Andrews, 29 October 2014

Writing well: coherence, structure and argumentation (CAPOD course), St Andrews, 12 June 2015

Networking effectively (SGSAH induction workshop), Edinburgh, 8 October 2015

Editing for publication, Edinburgh, 10 October 2015

Researching and interpreting material culture (CAPOD course), St Andrews, 12 November 2015

Being Human – Public Engagement Training led by Hellen Keen, Aberdeen, 19 November 2015

SGSAH induction workshops, residentials and Summer School training sessions 2015-2017

Introduction to Performance Storytelling with Debs Newbold, Hull, 8 January 2016

This is what I do... (...and this is why it matters) (CAPOD course), St Andrews, 28 April 2016

Project management (SGSAH Summer School full-day workshop), Glasgow, 21 June 2016

Play as research method (SGSAH Summer School full-day workshop), Glasgow, 22 June 2016

Tutoring in the Arts: An introduction and Assessment & Academic Misconduct (Arts): An introduction, St Andrews, 5-6 September 2016

Funny Research: Bright Club stand-up comedy workshop (CAPOD workshop), St Andrews, 13 September 2016

Quantitative Methods Masterclass led by Matthew Wilkens (Notre Dame), Edinburgh, 19-21 September 2016

From Perfection to Being Perfectly Imperfect (Student wellbeing workshop), St Andrews, 10 October 2016

Knowledge Transfer: An Introduction (CAPOD workshop), St Andrews,14 February 2017

‘Albumazar’ Performance Workshop with The Rose Company, Lancaster, 25 February 2017

A Creative Enlightenment: Using digital media to engage the public, Edinburgh, 23 March 2017

Workshop delivery (tailored training), with Boom!, Edinburgh, 13 July 2017

Data Visualisation (SGSAH workshop), Edinburgh, 6 April 2018

Spring into methods: Co-Design and Co-Creation Methods (SGSAH bootcamp), Dundee, 25-27 April 2018

Districts of Creativity 2018 Places of Potential Summit (Dundee), 23-25 May 2018

ModUAL: Kickstarter, (University of London, Glasgow School of Arts and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland summer bootcamp)Glasgow, 23 July-3 August 2018

Enterprise Studio: Summer School (Glasgow School of Arts), 6-10 August 2018

Places of Production (workshop during Assembly Dundee, organised by a-n), 12 Oct 2018

Contact Details:

Email: j.coman1@student.gsa.ac.uk

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First published: 31 August 2015