Dr Nick Mayhew

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

Biography

Before joining the University of Glasgow, I was a Lecturer in Russian at the University of Oxford (2021-2022) and an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer in Slavic Languages & Literatures at Stanford University (2018-2021). I received my PhD in Slavonic Studies at the University of Cambridge in 2018.

Research interests

My research explores queer gender and sexuality in Russophone and Church Slavonic culture. As a gay man 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 too 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.

My publications focus mainly on the early modern period, although I am moving increasingly into the modern and contemporary periods. I am also interested in the telling of cultural, historical and religious narratives about gender and sexuality in the present, and in queerness in Russophone pop culture.

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2018 | 2017
Number of items: 17.

2024

Mayhew, N. (2024) Ukraine’s LGBTQ+ soldiers call for more rights – as Russia forces minorities into active service. Conversation,

Mayhew, N. (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, N. (2024) Vladimir Putin’s history war where truth is the first casualty. Conversation, 15 Feb.

2023

Mayhew, N. (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, N. (2023) European ideas about homosexuality in Muscovy and the Russian Empire, sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. In: Flier, M. S., Kollmann, N., Rowland, D. and Monahan, E. (eds.) Muscovy and the World: An Empire and Its Limits. Slavica Publishers. (Accepted for Publication)

Mayhew, N. (2023) Contemplating the divine: How Andrey Rublev revolutionized icon painting. Times Literary Supplement(6274), [Book Review]

Mayhew, N. (2023) Petr and Fevroniia’s unorthodox marriage. Slavonic and East European Review, 100(4), pp. 654-673.

Mayhew, N. (2023) Holy foolishness and gender transgression in Russian hagiography from the Middle Ages to Modernity. In: Torres Prieto, S. and Franklin, A. (eds.) Medieval Rus' and Early Modern Russia: Texts and Contexts. Routledge, pp. 49-66. ISBN 9781032187853

2022

Mayhew, N. (2022) Medieval and Trans Ways of Being. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 9(2), pp. 293-296. (doi: 10.1215/23289252-9612977)[Book Review]

Mayhew, N. (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, N. (2022) Мужеложство и современные представления о русской традиции гомофобии. Критика феміністична, 5, pp. 92-98.

2021

Mayhew, N. (2021) Moscow: The Third Rome. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Oxford University Press. (doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.1243)

2020

Bulgakovsky, D. and Mayhew, N. (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, N. (2020) Queering sodomy: a challenge to “traditional” sexual relations in Russia. In: Wiedlack, K., Shoshanova, S. and Godovannaya, M. (eds.) Queering Paradigms VIII: Queer-Feminist Solidarity and the East/West Divide. Series: Queering paradigms (10). Peter Lang. ISBN 9781788746793

2018

Mayhew, N. (2018) Eunuchs and ascetic masculinity in Kievan Rus. Medieval History Journal, 21(1), pp. 100-116. (doi: 10.1177/0971945818760119)

2017

Mayhew, N. (2017) Banning spiritual brotherhoods and establishing marital chastity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Muscovy and Ruthenia. Palaeoslavica, 25(2), pp. 80-108.

Mayhew, N. (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 Sun Oct 13 13:11:50 2024 BST.
Number of items: 17.

Articles

Mayhew, N. (2024) Ukraine’s LGBTQ+ soldiers call for more rights – as Russia forces minorities into active service. Conversation,

Mayhew, N. (2024) Vladimir Putin’s history war where truth is the first casualty. Conversation, 15 Feb.

Mayhew, N. (2023) Petr and Fevroniia’s unorthodox marriage. Slavonic and East European Review, 100(4), pp. 654-673.

Mayhew, N. (2022) Мужеложство и современные представления о русской традиции гомофобии. Критика феміністична, 5, pp. 92-98.

Bulgakovsky, D. and Mayhew, N. (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, N. (2018) Eunuchs and ascetic masculinity in Kievan Rus. Medieval History Journal, 21(1), pp. 100-116. (doi: 10.1177/0971945818760119)

Mayhew, N. (2017) Banning spiritual brotherhoods and establishing marital chastity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Muscovy and Ruthenia. Palaeoslavica, 25(2), pp. 80-108.

Mayhew, N. (2017) Reading the body: Hesychasm in the life of Saint Stephen, Bishop of Perm. Rossica Antiqua, 2017(2), pp. 63-78.

Book Sections

Mayhew, N. (2023) European ideas about homosexuality in Muscovy and the Russian Empire, sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. In: Flier, M. S., Kollmann, N., Rowland, D. and Monahan, E. (eds.) Muscovy and the World: An Empire and Its Limits. Slavica Publishers. (Accepted for Publication)

Mayhew, N. (2023) Holy foolishness and gender transgression in Russian hagiography from the Middle Ages to Modernity. In: Torres Prieto, S. and Franklin, A. (eds.) Medieval Rus' and Early Modern Russia: Texts and Contexts. Routledge, pp. 49-66. ISBN 9781032187853

Mayhew, N. (2021) Moscow: The Third Rome. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Oxford University Press. (doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.1243)

Mayhew, N. (2020) Queering sodomy: a challenge to “traditional” sexual relations in Russia. In: Wiedlack, K., Shoshanova, S. and Godovannaya, M. (eds.) Queering Paradigms VIII: Queer-Feminist Solidarity and the East/West Divide. Series: Queering paradigms (10). Peter Lang. ISBN 9781788746793

Book Reviews

Mayhew, N. (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, N. (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, N. (2023) Contemplating the divine: How Andrey Rublev revolutionized icon painting. Times Literary Supplement(6274), [Book Review]

Mayhew, N. (2022) Medieval and Trans Ways of Being. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 9(2), pp. 293-296. (doi: 10.1215/23289252-9612977)[Book Review]

Mayhew, N. (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 Sun Oct 13 13:11:50 2024 BST.

Grants

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

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

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

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

Supervision

2023-present: Joseph Paolantonacci (gender and dark fantasy)

I would be thrilled to supervise graduate students interested in gender and sexuality in Russophone contexts, or medieval and early modern Slavonic culture.

Teaching

  • Classic European Cinema (2023 onward)
  • Heroic Men (Comparative Literature) (2023 onward)
  • Queerness in Russophone Cultures (2023 onward)
  • Russian Culture and State Power (2022 onward)
  • Russian Culture 2 (2022 onward)
  • Russian Language 2 (2022-2023)
  • Russian Senior Honours (2023 onward)
  • Transnational Constructions of Gender (2024 onward)