People

qUCL is made up of students and staff from across UCL.

Anyone involved in research at UCL can be affiliated to the network, if they are currently working in LGBTQ studies, gender and sexuality studies, queer theory or any related fields. Please contact lgbtq-research@ucl.ac.uk if you want to get involved.

Directors | Staff | Students

Directors

Dr Simon Lock (he/they)

Bob Mills's tenure as Director of qUCL came to an end in August 2018 after three years in the role. Simon Lock (UCL Science and Technology Studies) and Steven Vaughan (UCL Laws) took up the reins as qUCL Co-Directors from September 2018. Steven had to leave to take up other responsibilities but Simon remains and has exciting plans for developing the network further.

Simon's research focus is interdisciplinary, examining the public dimensions of science and technology from sociological, historical, cultural and policy-related perspectives; in particular, the development of the nascent field of ‘Queer STS’ which aims to unpick the heteronormative, gendered and racialised architectures within and around cultures of science and knowledge production.

Dr Xine Yao (she/her)

Xine (UCL English) joined Simon as co-director in January 2022. 

As co-director, Xine is particularly interested in fostering feminist, queer, and trans of colour critique, and looks forward to supporting and growing the vibrancy of the qUCL network in the diversity of its research and, foremost, the people and the wider community. 

Xine’s primary research focuses on early and nineteenth-century American literature through affect theory, critical race and ethnic studies, and feminist and queer of colour theory. Her book Disaffected: The Cultural Politics of Unfeeling in Nineteenth-Century America (2021) won the Duke University Press Scholars of Colour First Book Prize.