Jay Buchanan is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art History and Archaeology and Lynne Cooper Harvey Fellow in American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Jay works on global contemporary art; queer and trans* cultural production; history of photography; performance studies; nineteenth-century art and the afterlives of empire; and the body politics of infrastructure, industry, and commerce. Jay's dissertation, "Awash: Sensation, Infiltration, and the Bather in Queer and Trans* Art," braiding themes of queer tactics, exoticism, techno-imperialism, the nude, and modern water infrastructure. The Department of Art History and Archaeology, Program in American Culture Studies, and Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity at WashU have supported his research, as have the Getty Foundation and Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library.

 

Jay completed the M.A. in Theater and Performance Studies at Washington University in St. Louis and B.A. in Theater and Politics (double-major) at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC. His writing appears in Source: Notes in the History of Art,  ASAP/Journal and its e-companion ASAP/Review (formerly ASAP/J), Chiricú: The Journal of Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures, Theatre History Studies, Miranda, About Place from the Black Earth Institute, and elsewhere. Jay's curatorial and museum operations training reflects work with the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Moving Stories, a transdisciplinary migration studies initiative; Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO; Saint Louis Art Museum, MO; The Luminary, St. Louis, MO; Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis; and Wake Forest University Art Galleries and Collections, Winston-Salem, NC. He serves on the Museum Committee of the College Art Association (CAA) and is a past co-chair of the Association's Queer and Trans Caucus for Art (QTCA).