Ciaran Hervás: Sexology and the Avant-Garde: Photographing Queer Embodiment and Desire in Interwar Paris and Berlin

Supervisor: Prof Alyce Mahon

Research overview:

The research examines the intersections between sexology and the artistic avant-garde in interwar Paris and Berlin, with a focus on photography as a common visual language between scientific and artistic spheres in the exploration of the sexed, gendered, and desiring body. Their broader research interests include: interdisciplinary histories of sexology and the medical sciences; histories of queer and trans visual culture; queer-feminist photography and film; queer curatorial strategies; interwar French and German avant-garde movements, particularly surrealism and New Vision (Neues Sehen) photography.

Biography:

Ciaran Hervás is a PhD student in the History of Art department at the University of Cambridge, supervised by Prof. Alyce Mahon. They are a Harvard-UK Fellow at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, and their PhD research is funded by the Harvard Herchel Smith Scholarship. Hervás received an A.B. in History & Literature (High Honors) from Harvard University in 2021, and an MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies (High Distinction) from the University of Cambridge in 2022.