Cameron Crookston, PhD

Lecturer

Cultural Studies, English and Cultural Studies

Office: CCS 351A
Email: cameron.crookston@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Drag, LGBTQ2+ history, Queer Popular Culture, Transgender Studies

Courses & Teaching

Media and Popular Culture

Biography

Cameron Crookston is a lecturer and scholar in media, popular culture, and queer culture. His research focuses on drag, queer pop culture and LGBTQ2+ history. His work has appeared in GLQ a Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies, The Journal of Homosexuality, and Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture. He is also the editor of the 2021 anthology, The Cultural Impact of RuPaul’s Drag Race: Why Are We All Gagging?

Prior to coming to UBCO, Cameron was a sessional lecturer at the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto where he also worked as a teaching fellow at The Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation. He has also worked as a dramaturge and stage manager for theatre companies in Toronto and Vancouver. Cameron’s current research examines drag as a form of performed queer cultural memory and examines intersections of collective memory, performance, nostalgia, and intergenerational communication among drag performers and audiences.

Degrees

PhD- Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies- The University of Toronto
MA- Drama- The University of Toronto
BA- Theatre Studies- York University

Selected Publications & Presentations

Crookston, Cameron ed. 2021. The Cultural Impact of RuPaul’s Drag Race: Why Are We All Gagging? Cameron Crookston, Editor. Intellect.

Crookston, Cameron and Peter Kuling eds. 2021. “Drag Performance in Canada.” Canadian Theatre Review 185.

Cameron Crookston. 2021. “It Feels Like Ye sterday: Drag, Nostalgia, and Queer Affective History in The Vaudevillians.” Journal of Homosexuality. DOI:10.1080/00918369.2021.1892403

Crookston, Cameron. 2021.“Can I Be Frank with You? Laverne Cox and the Historiographic Dramaturgy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 27. 2.

Crookston, Cameron. 2018. “Off the Clock: Is Drag ‘Just a Job’?” Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture. 3.1. Intellect.

Crookston, Cameron.  2018.“Passing the Torch Song: Mothers, Daughters and Chosen Families in the Canadian Drag Community” in Q2Q: Queer Theatre and Performance in Canada. Edited by Peter Dickenson, C.E. Gatchalian, Kathleen Oliver, and Dalbir Singh. Playwrights Canada Press.