Recent News
Three images, L to R: the Routledge Porn Studies journal logo, featuring a grey circle with the words "Porn Studies" in white capital letters within it; a rainbow and white graphic for the IFTR 2025 Performing Carnival conference in Cologne, Germany in June; the cover image from Theatre Topics 35.1: black letters reading "T Theatre Topics" in capital letters, and below, an image of people sitting at a conference table leaning to face a white board.
What I've been up to in 2025:
In January, I was hard at work finishing the second draft of my dissertation chapter on Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play (2019). I'm thrilled to have received very positive feedback from my supervisor. I also continued applying for positions on the academic job market, completing applications for two teaching positions, three postdocs, and two dissertation fellowships.
February saw me busy continuing dissertation writing. Meanwhile, it was thrilling to observe my Porn Studies article "Consent work in intimacy coordination and adult content creation" rising through the journal's list of most-read publications in the past year, and by the end of the month my piece was the sixth-most read.
In March, my article "Queerer Lineages of Consent-Based Performance," co-written with fellow intimacy professionals Raja Benz and Joy Brooke Fairfield, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Theatre Topics 35(1). My work with a group of scholars assembled during PSi 2024 led to the successful co-creation of a speculative journal article, now submitted to Global Performance Studies. Finally, I had a productive time workshopping one of my chapters at the UCSB Center for Feminist Futures Brown Bag Lunch Series event "Who's in the Couture Club?": Kinking Consent at London's Torture Garden. (See pic left.) The Lunch Series, run by the Feminist Studies Department, gives graduate students a chance to workshop writing in community.
As April unfurls, I will be completing drafts of my dissertation's introduction and my Torture Garden chapter. I'm also pleased to share that my Porn Studies article is now the journal's third-most read in the past year. Finally, I look forward to recording a podcast episode on intimacy coordination, and will share info on that when I can!
Full of writing, May will be my month to finish a fill draft of the dissertation! Time to hunker down.
I will conference again in June, presenting "Kink (at) Pride: The Politics of Queer Futurity" with the Queer Futures Working Group at the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR). The 2025 conference "Performing Carnival" will take place this year in Cologne, Germany from June 9-13. After the conference, I will travel in Germany for the remainder of the month.
In July, I will travel in Portugal and hopefully several other European destinations, TBD. I also hope to join the American Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) for the first time for its annual conference: "The REAL," held from July 28-August 1. My proposal to present "Intimacy Coordination: Performing the Real?" is currently under consideration with the Women and Theatre+: Allied Feminist Coalition Focus Group's Emerging Scholars Debut Panel.
August will ideally see me return to the UK to attend and present research at the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) annual conference, held from August 27-29 at the University of Warwick. I will share a paper titled "Kinking Consent in the Wake" with the Performance, Identity, and Community Working Group.
In the fall, I will continue dissertation writing, job searching, and postdoc/job applications. My evergreen course "Intro to BDSM and Kink for ICs" continues to be available through the Intimacy Professionals Association. Learn more and sign up here.
Stay tuned for new developments!
* * *
Connecting with likeminded people is always a pleasure. If you research kink and BDSM, gender, consent, critical race, and/or intimacy, please reach out using the Contact page!
To read news from 2024 and earlier, visit my Archive section.
Links
Peruse my Intimacy Coordination and Intimacy Direction website
Add me to your network on LinkedIn
Connect with me on Twitter/X
Check out my IMDb
In January, I was hard at work finishing the second draft of my dissertation chapter on Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play (2019). I'm thrilled to have received very positive feedback from my supervisor. I also continued applying for positions on the academic job market, completing applications for two teaching positions, three postdocs, and two dissertation fellowships.
February saw me busy continuing dissertation writing. Meanwhile, it was thrilling to observe my Porn Studies article "Consent work in intimacy coordination and adult content creation" rising through the journal's list of most-read publications in the past year, and by the end of the month my piece was the sixth-most read.
In March, my article "Queerer Lineages of Consent-Based Performance," co-written with fellow intimacy professionals Raja Benz and Joy Brooke Fairfield, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Theatre Topics 35(1). My work with a group of scholars assembled during PSi 2024 led to the successful co-creation of a speculative journal article, now submitted to Global Performance Studies. Finally, I had a productive time workshopping one of my chapters at the UCSB Center for Feminist Futures Brown Bag Lunch Series event "Who's in the Couture Club?": Kinking Consent at London's Torture Garden. (See pic left.) The Lunch Series, run by the Feminist Studies Department, gives graduate students a chance to workshop writing in community.
As April unfurls, I will be completing drafts of my dissertation's introduction and my Torture Garden chapter. I'm also pleased to share that my Porn Studies article is now the journal's third-most read in the past year. Finally, I look forward to recording a podcast episode on intimacy coordination, and will share info on that when I can!
Full of writing, May will be my month to finish a fill draft of the dissertation! Time to hunker down.
I will conference again in June, presenting "Kink (at) Pride: The Politics of Queer Futurity" with the Queer Futures Working Group at the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR). The 2025 conference "Performing Carnival" will take place this year in Cologne, Germany from June 9-13. After the conference, I will travel in Germany for the remainder of the month.
In July, I will travel in Portugal and hopefully several other European destinations, TBD. I also hope to join the American Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) for the first time for its annual conference: "The REAL," held from July 28-August 1. My proposal to present "Intimacy Coordination: Performing the Real?" is currently under consideration with the Women and Theatre+: Allied Feminist Coalition Focus Group's Emerging Scholars Debut Panel.
August will ideally see me return to the UK to attend and present research at the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) annual conference, held from August 27-29 at the University of Warwick. I will share a paper titled "Kinking Consent in the Wake" with the Performance, Identity, and Community Working Group.
In the fall, I will continue dissertation writing, job searching, and postdoc/job applications. My evergreen course "Intro to BDSM and Kink for ICs" continues to be available through the Intimacy Professionals Association. Learn more and sign up here.
Stay tuned for new developments!
* * *
Connecting with likeminded people is always a pleasure. If you research kink and BDSM, gender, consent, critical race, and/or intimacy, please reach out using the Contact page!
To read news from 2024 and earlier, visit my Archive section.
Links
Peruse my Intimacy Coordination and Intimacy Direction website
Add me to your network on LinkedIn
Connect with me on Twitter/X
Check out my IMDb
© 2025 by Heath Pennington. All Rights Reserved.
