Ph.D. Students

Troy Woolsey

Biography

Troy Woolsey’s research areas include 19th and 20th-century American literature and culture, gender and sexuality studies, and critical theories of embodiment. Their current work explores embodied intimacy and death in queer literature and art. Specifically, they focus on how the socio-political contexts of American queer life, spanning from the Antebellum Period to the Gay Liberation Movement, encourage and enforce masochistic tendencies within the physical and emotional expressions of queer sexuality. They have presented their work at the American Comparative Literature Association and LACK Psychoanalytic Theory conferences.

Troy has experience as an instructor of First-Year Writing at Boston College. Additionally, they have interned at the McMullen Museum of Art, gaining experience in art handling and catalogue editing for the museum’s Fall 2022 exhibition, “American Alternative Comics, 1980–2000: Raw, Weirdo, and Beyond.”

They received their M.A. in English from Boston College and a B.A. in both English and Linguistics with a minor in Sexualities and Gender Studies from University of Delaware.