Joshua Bastian Cole-Kurz
Joshua Bastian Cole-KurzVisiting Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectional Justice
Joined faculty in 2025
Ph.D., Cornell University, 2022M.A., Cornell University, 2018
M.A., CUNY Brooklyn College, 2012
B.A., James Madison University, 2002
Contact Information
Scholarly Interest
My research traces how speculative aesthetics in film, television, and theatre make trans masculinity legible in ways that extend beyond visibility frameworks. My current book project, A Plastic Medium: Speculating Trans Masculinity on Screen, argues that science fiction cinema’s use of prosthetics, practical visual effects, and “impossible shots” resonates with trans masculine experiences of the body, time, and visuality. In addition to this work, I write on queer and trans representation more broadly—including aesthetics, casting, design, and performance—with publications appearing across a wide range of cinema, television, and theatre venues, both academic and public-facing. Across these projects, my scholarship is guided by trans, feminist, queer, and disability justice methodologies.
Publications
Monograph (in progress)
A Plastic Medium: Speculating Trans Masculinity on Screen
Accepted and forthcoming with the Queer Screens Series from Wayne State University Press, anticipated 2027.
Forthcoming Articles and Book Chapters
“Time Traveling While Black (and Trans): Unpacking Time Loops in See You Yesterday.” The Handbook of Transgender Science Fiction. Eds. Douglas Vakoch and Sabine Sharp. University of Liverpool Press.
“The ‘Ruhls’ of Play: Mythical and Real Currents in Tyler Rocio Ecoña’s Unfair Advantage.” The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays, Vol. 3. Eds. Angela Farr Schiller, Lindsey Mantoan, and Leanna Keyes. Bloomsbury.
“Packer.” Making Things International 5: Global Tastes and the Global Body: Sense and Sensibilities. Ed. Mark B. Salter. McGill-Queens University Press.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
“Lost Boys and Trans Time in Devs and The OA.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, vol. 12, no. 1: Speculative Media and Fiction, guest eds. Jed Samer and Cáel M. Keegan, pp. 105–123. Duke UP, 2025.
“You Can’t Go Home Again: Remakes as Trans Method.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 149–163. Duke UP, 2024.
“The Prosthetic Transgender Gaze: Swiss Army Man.” Jump Cut, no. 61, 2022.
“Changing the Reflection: Re-visions on the Trans Mirror Scene.” New Review of Film and Television Studies, pp. 243–267. Routledge, 2022.
“Passing Glances: Recognizing the Trans Gaze in Mulholland Drive.” Somatechnics, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 79–94. Edinburgh UP, 2018.
“Dys-appearing/Re-Appearing: Trans Men Actors Resisting Cisnormative Theatrical Traditions with Phenomenal Stage Presence.” Queer Cats Journal of LGBTQ Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 13–33. UCLA Press, 2018.
Book Chapters and Anthologized Work
“Circling Time: Cercle Hermaphroditos and the Continuum of Trans History.” The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays, Vol. 2. Eds. Angela Farr Schiller, Lindsey Mantoan, and Leanna Keyes. Bloomsbury, 2025.
“Will Davis.” 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre. Eds. Jimmy A. Noriega and Jordan Schildcrout. Routledge, 2022.
Book and Media Reviews
“Review of The Palgrave Handbook of Queer and Trans Feminisms in ContemporaryPerformance.” Eds. Tiina Rosenberg, Sandra D’Urso, and Anna Renée Winget. Theatre Topics, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 114–115. Johns Hopkins UP, 2023.
Popular and Online Publications
“Confronting Authenticity: Why I Chose to Mix Casting in My Trans Play.” TheatreForum, no. 52, pp. 8–10. UC San Diego Press, 2017.
“The New Play’s the Thing.” American Theatre, 21 Sept. 2016.
“‘Pressure and Movement, That’s How it Works’: Revisiting August Strindberg’s Miss Julie in Kim Davies’ Modern-Day Smoke.” The Flea Theater, 11 Sept. 2014.
“Who’s Missing from the List? The Killjoys and Why American Theater Needs Trans Playwrights.” Huffington Post, 31 July 2014.
“Cyborg Alice: Cyborgs and Erin Courtney’s The Service Road.” Signals: A Contemporary Performance Journal, 2013.
“Poster Boy: Label Without a Cause – A Response to Rampant Transphobia.” The Daily Beast, 23 Aug. 2013.
“Daily Beast Within.” Original Plumbing Magazine, Aug. 2013.
“Stop the Spot: Polemics of Trans Male Stage Representation and Its Criticism.” Theatre Provocateur, 2012.
“A New ‘American Gothic’: Tallgrass Gothic at the New Workshop Theater.” The Kingsman (Brooklyn College Newspaper), 25 Oct. 2010.
“Some Femmes Don’t Wear Heels.” Visible: A Femmethology. Ed. Jennifer Clare Burke. Vol. 1. Homofactus Press, pp. 136–139, 2009.
“Tarheels and Transfags.” Beyond Masculinity. Ed. Trevor Hoppe, 2008.
“I’ll Be Different.” With Julie Loyd. Trans-Fusions (CD), 2008.
“Real Trans (In)Visibility.” Lambda Magazine, Dec. 2005.
“Tomboy to Femme Boy.” Trans Forming Families. Ed. Mary Boenke. Oak Knoll Press, 2003.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
- Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)
- Current Junior Co-Chair of the SCMS Queer and Trans Caucus