Hey folks, I am a PhD candidate in the Cultural Studies program, and my research focuses on Professional Wrestling, particularly as a form of alternative theatre that is community focused and preoccupied with the intersections of class and masculinity. I look at Professional Wrestling through an autoethnographic lens, whereby I actively attend wrestling events in the community and reflect on the performance itself. This differs from other (although they are scarce) studies on Professional Wrestling, which mainly focus on it in its mediatized form on Television or on PPV. I believe that this unique artform provides a space for working-class demographics of various intersectionalities to work on their societal concerns and anxieties in a safe space that allows for engagement, participation, collaboration and care.
Other adjacent scholarly work intersects with comedy, humour, and Fat Studies, and the particular ways that representations of fatness in film comedy affects how one views their own body. I have been awarded the Judith Yaross Lee Publication Grant from the American Humor Studies Association to turn the conference presentation mentioned below discussing fat male comedians into a full journal article.
I also have significant experience in service, sitting on various boards and committees, mainly as a student representative for the English and Cultural Studies departments. I am also the current VP of CUPE 3908 Unit 2 representing student academic workers at Trent.
Recent Conference presentations include:
- Grapple with Me: A Manifesto of Professional Wrestling’s Blueprint for Collaborative Work in the Academy, CCLA Conference, June 2025.
- What We Choose to Remember and What They Choose to Forget: The WWE Hall of Fame & The Propaganda of Memory, WrestlePosium, April 2025.
- Larger Than Life: The Personification of Fatness in Popular Film Comedies and its Influence on Identity Construction, SWAPCA, February 2025
Published work is forthcoming and in progress but are as follows:
- Grappling with the Trumpification of Politics: How Camp Aesthetics and Professional Wrestling helps us understand the Rise of Right-Wing Politics. Book Chapter.
- Larger Than Life: The Personification of Fatness in Popular Film Comedies and its Influence on Identity Construction, Journal Article Adapted from Conference Paper.