Dr Nick Mayhew

  • Lecturer in Russian (School of Modern Languages & Cultures)

Biography

Before joining the University of Glasgow, I was a Stipendiary Lecturer in Russian at the University of Oxford and an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer in Slavic Languages & Literatures at Stanford University. I received my PhD in Slavonic Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Research interests

My research explores queerness in Russophone and Church Slavonic cultures. As a queer person living in Moscow when Russia first introduced a law against the "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations", I saw first-hand how culture, history and religion can be manipulated to fuel discrimination. My research is premised on telling queer counternarratives about Russophone culture and especially religion, to shine light on a rich queer heritage often obscured from scholarly perception.

I am particularly interested in bringing queerness to light in contexts that are usually deemed conservative and heteronormative, such as within the Russian Orthodox Church. On the one hand, I am interested in thinking through how sexual minorities negotiate their relationships with cultural and religious traditions that have marginalised them, and on the other hand, I look at queerness inherent to the traditions themselves.

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2018 | 2017
Number of items: 18.

2025

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2025) Queerness in the Early Modern Russian Orthodox Church. Series: Genders and sexualities in history. Palgrave Macmillan. (Accepted for Publication)

2024

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2024) Ukraine’s LGBTQ+ soldiers call for more rights – as Russia forces minorities into active service. Conversation,

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2024) Russian Style: Performing Gender, Power, and Putinism by Julie A. Cassiday, Madison, Wisconsin, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2023, 255 pp., $79.95 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-299-34670-6. Slavonica, [Book Review] (Accepted for Publication)

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2024) Vladimir Putin’s history war where truth is the first casualty. Conversation, 15 Feb.

2023

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2023) Places of Tenderness and Heat: The Queer Milieu of Fin-de-Siele St. Petersburg by Olga Petri, Cornell University Press, 2022. ISBN: 9781501763786, (xx, 254 pages) illustrations, maps. Slavonic and East European Review, [Book Review] (Accepted for Publication)

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2023) European ideas about homosexuality in Muscovy and the Russian Empire, sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. In: Flier, Michael S., Kollmann, Nancy, Rowland, Daniel and Monahan, Erika (eds.) Muscovy and the World: An Empire and Its Limits. Slavica Publishers. (Accepted for Publication)

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2023) Contemplating the divine: How Andrey Rublev revolutionized icon painting. Times Literary Supplement(6274), [Book Review]

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2023) Petr and Fevroniia’s unorthodox marriage. Slavonic and East European Review, 100(4), pp. 654-673.

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2023) Holy foolishness and gender transgression in Russian hagiography from the Middle Ages to Modernity. In: Torres Prieto, Susana and Franklin, Andrei (eds.) Medieval Rus' and Early Modern Russia: Texts and Contexts. Routledge, pp. 49-66. ISBN 9781032187853

2022

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2022) Medieval and Trans Ways of Being. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 9(2), pp. 293-296. (doi: 10.1215/23289252-9612977)[Book Review]

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2022) Regulating Homosexuality in Soviet Russia, 1956–1991: a different history by Rustam Alexander, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2021, x + 248 pp., £80.00 (hardback), ISBN: 978-1-5261-5576-4. Social History, 47(1), pp. 115-116. (doi: 10.1080/03071022.2022.2009703)[Book Review]

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2022) Мужеложство и современные представления о русской традиции гомофобии. Критика феміністична, 5, pp. 92-98.

2021

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2021) Moscow: The Third Rome. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Oxford University Press. (doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.1243)

2020

Bulgakovsky, Dmitry and Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2020) Xenia the Servant of God, or Andrey Fyodorovich the Holy Fool. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 7(1), pp. 114-120. (doi: 10.1215/23289252-7914570)

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2020) Queering sodomy: a challenge to “traditional” sexual relations in Russia. In: Wiedlack, Katharina, Shoshanova, Saltanat and Godovannaya, Masha (eds.) Queering Paradigms VIII: Queer-Feminist Solidarity and the East/West Divide. Series: Queering paradigms (10). Peter Lang. ISBN 9781788746793

2018

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2018) Eunuchs and ascetic masculinity in Kievan Rus. Medieval History Journal, 21(1), pp. 100-116. (doi: 10.1177/0971945818760119)

2017

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2017) Banning spiritual brotherhoods and establishing marital chastity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Muscovy and Ruthenia. Palaeoslavica, 25(2), pp. 80-108.

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2017) Reading the body: Hesychasm in the life of Saint Stephen, Bishop of Perm. Rossica Antiqua, 2017(2), pp. 63-78.

This list was generated on Mon Oct 6 21:53:42 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Book Reviews
Number of items: 18.

Articles

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2024) Ukraine’s LGBTQ+ soldiers call for more rights – as Russia forces minorities into active service. Conversation,

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2024) Vladimir Putin’s history war where truth is the first casualty. Conversation, 15 Feb.

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2023) Petr and Fevroniia’s unorthodox marriage. Slavonic and East European Review, 100(4), pp. 654-673.

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2022) Мужеложство и современные представления о русской традиции гомофобии. Критика феміністична, 5, pp. 92-98.

Bulgakovsky, Dmitry and Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2020) Xenia the Servant of God, or Andrey Fyodorovich the Holy Fool. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 7(1), pp. 114-120. (doi: 10.1215/23289252-7914570)

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2018) Eunuchs and ascetic masculinity in Kievan Rus. Medieval History Journal, 21(1), pp. 100-116. (doi: 10.1177/0971945818760119)

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2017) Banning spiritual brotherhoods and establishing marital chastity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Muscovy and Ruthenia. Palaeoslavica, 25(2), pp. 80-108.

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2017) Reading the body: Hesychasm in the life of Saint Stephen, Bishop of Perm. Rossica Antiqua, 2017(2), pp. 63-78.

Books

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2025) Queerness in the Early Modern Russian Orthodox Church. Series: Genders and sexualities in history. Palgrave Macmillan. (Accepted for Publication)

Book Sections

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2023) European ideas about homosexuality in Muscovy and the Russian Empire, sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. In: Flier, Michael S., Kollmann, Nancy, Rowland, Daniel and Monahan, Erika (eds.) Muscovy and the World: An Empire and Its Limits. Slavica Publishers. (Accepted for Publication)

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2023) Holy foolishness and gender transgression in Russian hagiography from the Middle Ages to Modernity. In: Torres Prieto, Susana and Franklin, Andrei (eds.) Medieval Rus' and Early Modern Russia: Texts and Contexts. Routledge, pp. 49-66. ISBN 9781032187853

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2021) Moscow: The Third Rome. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Oxford University Press. (doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.1243)

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2020) Queering sodomy: a challenge to “traditional” sexual relations in Russia. In: Wiedlack, Katharina, Shoshanova, Saltanat and Godovannaya, Masha (eds.) Queering Paradigms VIII: Queer-Feminist Solidarity and the East/West Divide. Series: Queering paradigms (10). Peter Lang. ISBN 9781788746793

Book Reviews

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2024) Russian Style: Performing Gender, Power, and Putinism by Julie A. Cassiday, Madison, Wisconsin, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2023, 255 pp., $79.95 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-299-34670-6. Slavonica, [Book Review] (Accepted for Publication)

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2023) Places of Tenderness and Heat: The Queer Milieu of Fin-de-Siele St. Petersburg by Olga Petri, Cornell University Press, 2022. ISBN: 9781501763786, (xx, 254 pages) illustrations, maps. Slavonic and East European Review, [Book Review] (Accepted for Publication)

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2023) Contemplating the divine: How Andrey Rublev revolutionized icon painting. Times Literary Supplement(6274), [Book Review]

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2022) Medieval and Trans Ways of Being. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 9(2), pp. 293-296. (doi: 10.1215/23289252-9612977)[Book Review]

Mayhew, Nick ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0278-3323 (2022) Regulating Homosexuality in Soviet Russia, 1956–1991: a different history by Rustam Alexander, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2021, x + 248 pp., £80.00 (hardback), ISBN: 978-1-5261-5576-4. Social History, 47(1), pp. 115-116. (doi: 10.1080/03071022.2022.2009703)[Book Review]

This list was generated on Mon Oct 6 21:53:42 2025 BST.

Grants

Student Teaching Award in the category "Best College Teacher: Arts & Humanities" at the University of Glasgow (2025)

Early Slavic Studies Association article prize honourable mention for "Petr and Fevroniia's Unorthodox Marriage" (2024)

British Academy Early Career Research Network event grant for “Global Queer and Trans Histories Beyond Academia" (2023)

British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies event grant for "Queering Russia: Academia and Activism in Dialogue" (2022)

Alexander von Humboldt research fellowship (2022)

Andrew W. Mellon fellowship at Stanford University (2018-2021)

Early Slavic Studies Association article prize for "Banning Spiritual Brotherhoods and Establishing Marital Chastity in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Muscovy and Ruthenia" (2018)

Research fellowship at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University (2018)

Supervision

2023-present: Joseph Paolantonacci (queer medievalism)

I would be thrilled to supervise graduate students interested in:

  • Gender & sexuality in Russophone contexts;
  • Queer approaches to religion;
  • LGBTQ+ history;
  • Medieval & early modern East Slavonic history & culture.

Teaching

  • Censorship in Western Culture (MODLANG4013)
  • Classic European Cinema (COMPLIT4028)
  • Heroes (Heroic Men) (COMPLIT1001)
  • Literary Translation Studies (MODLANG5006)
  • Queerness in Russophone Cultures (RUSSIAN4042)
  • Russian Culture and State Power (RUSSIAN4038)
  • Russian Culture 2 (RUSSIAN2011)
  • Russian Language 2 (RUSSIAN2012)
  • Russian Junior Honours (RUSSIAN4033)
  • Russian Senior Honours (RUSSIAN4034)
  • Transnational Constructions of Gender (MODLANG5009)

Dr Nick Mayhew on Bluesky