Overview
Joshua Bastian Cole (he/him) holds an MA in Theatre History and Criticism from Brooklyn College and a BA in Theatre & Dance from James Madison University. He has taught in media, communications, and feminist, gender, and sexuality studies departments at CUNY, SUNY, and Cornell.
Cole’s research intersects transgender studies, disability studies, performance, and screen media. Accolades include the Biddy Martin Prize for LGBT Studies and honorable mention and joint win for the 2020 and 2021 Chris Holmlund Prize. Cole has been published in scholarly journals, such as Somatechnics and the New Review of Film and Television Studies, on topics ranging from trans men’s casting to trans gaze, and he is a contributor to the forthcoming Routledge volume Fifty Key Figures in Queer US Theatre.
Cole has also been featured on mainstream platforms, and his independently curated interviews with trans cultural producers has been recently revisited in Feminist Media Histories. Cole has appeared in films that have toured internationally in Lesbian and Gay, Queer, and Trans Festivals. Collaborating with Guggenheim and MacDowell Fellows, Obie winners, and other award-winning playwrights, directors, choreographers, composers, and librettists, Cole has worked in historic theatrical venues including Dixon Place, University Settlement, Judson Church, and HERE Arts Center.
At Cornell, his original play, Two Truths and Allie, received the Cornell Council for the Arts Grant, and Cole played the young Sholem Asch in Paula Vogel’s Indecent.
Cole currently serves as the Graduate Representative to the Queer and Trans Caucus of the Society for Cinema & Media Studies.
Research Focus
- Trans Studies
- Disability Studies
- Prosthetics
- Puppetry and Performing Objects
- Science Fiction/Speculative Media