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Ricky Varghese

Ricky Varghese

Tanis Doe Post-Doctoral Fellow in Gender, Disability, and Social Justice (2020-2022)
EducationMSW, MA, PhD
Areas of ExpertisePsychoanalysis and trauma studies, Freud, Lacan, and feminist psychoanalysis; queer theory, with a specific interest in theorizing HIV/AIDS, critical sexology, and porn studies; masculinities, critical race studies, and theories of sexual difference; death studies, historical and memory studies, rituals of mourning and practices of remembrance

I received my PhD in Sociology of Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Further to my academic training, I am also professionally trained as a social worker, having acquired both my BSW (York U) and MSW (UToronto), and I run a private practice as a psychotherapist in downtown Toronto. As of September 2020, I will be entering my fourth and final year as a candidate in clinical training to become an IPA-affiliated psychoanalyst at the Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis. During my tenure as a postdoctoral fellow, I hope to complete the manuscript for a book project on masculinity, suicide, and the death instinct.

I am also an associate editor for Drain: A Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture and have edited a special issue of the journal on the theme of the 鈥淩uin鈥� which came out in the fall of 2014 and another on 鈥淎IDS and Memory,鈥� released in the fall of 2016. I have also edited a special issue of Porn Studies on the theme 鈥淧orn on the Couch: Sex, Psychoanalysis, and Screen Cultures/Memories,鈥� released in the spring of 2019, and am currently co-editing (along with David K. Seitz and Fan Wu) an issue of GLQ on 鈥淨ueer Political Theologies,鈥� to be released in the fall of 2020. I have also edited a collection of essays Raw: PrEP, Pedagogy, and the Politics of Barebacking (University of Regina Press, 2019). Alongside my scholarly work, I have developed a rigorous art writing practice having written about the works of artists such as Gerhard Richter, Angela Grauerholz, Mich猫le Pearson Clarke, Erika DeFreitas, Francisco-Fernando Granados, Hajra Waheed, Indu Antony, Shannon Te Ao, and Vincent Chevalier. My writings on art have appeared in such publications as Canadian Art, esse arts+opinions, C Magazine, Modern Horizons, Rungh, and Art Asia Pacific. I also serve on the advisory board of Critical Distance Centre for Curators in Toronto and am a member of the exhibition planning committee of Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography.

Teaching

Teaching Interests:

  • Psychoanalytic theory
  • Death, dying, and death studies
  • Memory studies
  • Medical humanities, theorizing HIV/AIDS, barebacking, viral contagions, and the sociology of epi/pandemics
  • Queer theory and queer of color critique
  • Aesthetics, particularly the visual representations of sex, sexualities, disabilities, and mental illnesses

Research Projects:

  • Sex and the Pandemic: A speaker series. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connections Grant, 2021

Research Interests:

  • Suicide and masculinities
  • Campus suicides, productivity, and academic pressures
  • Sexual difference and the emergence of toxic masculinity
  • Psychoanalysis and pedagogy

Books Edited:

  • Varghese, R. (in press). Sex and the Pandemic. Regina: University of Regina Press.
  • Varghese, R. (2019). Raw: PrEP, Pedagogy, and the Politics of Barebacking. Regina: University of Regina Press.

Special Issues of Journals Edited:

  • Varghese, R., Seitz, D. K., & Wu, F. (Eds.). (2021). Queer Political Theologies [Special issue]. Gay and Lesbian Quarterly, 27(1). 
  • Varghese, R. (Ed.). (2019). Porn on the Couch: Sex, Psychoanalysis, and Screen Cultures/Memories [Special issue]. Porn Studies, 6(1).
  • Varghese, R. (Ed.). (2016). AIDS and Memory [Special issue]. Drain 鈥� A Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture, 13(2).
  • Varghese, R. (Ed.). (2014). Ruin [Special issue]. Drain 鈥� A Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture, 11(2). 

Chapters in Books:

  • Varghese, R. (in press). Loved to Death. Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies.
  • Varghese, R., & Granados, F. F. (2019). Mourning and Mediation: On Erika DeFreitas鈥檚 A Visual Vocabulary for Hands in Mourning. In D. Bowen (Ed.), Other Places: Reflections on Media Arts in Canada. Toronto: Media Arts Network of Ontario.
  • Varghese, R. (2018). Barebacking and Historical Time. In K. Harrison & C. Ogden (Eds.), Pornographies: Critical Positions. Chester, UK: University of Chester Press (Summer 2018)

Select Papers in Refereed Journals:

  • Varghese, R. (2020). Confluences: of war porn and nationalism, at the limits of memory. Porn Studies, 7(1), 132-137.
  • Varghese, R. (2016). Sex/work. Porn Studies, 3(2), 191-194.
  • Varghese, R. (2015). Living in the future anterior: trauma and autobiography in the work of Vincent Chevalier and Francisco-Fernando Granados. Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture, 15(1).
  • Varghese, R. (2015). The Time of Camp, or, Camp as Ruin: Vincent Chevalier, the Portrait of a Young Man as an Artist. The Word Hoard, 1(3).

Select Book Reviews:

  • Varghese, R. (2019). Making Sex Public And Other Cinematic Fantasies by Damon R. Young. Public, 30(59), 207-209.
  • Varghese, R. (2019). 鈥淭ime is the Longest Distance between Two Places,鈥� on Night Charge Extra by Akhil Katyal. Cerebration.
  • Varghese, R. (2018). Breaking Boundaries: LGBTQ Writers on Coming Out and Into Canada by Lori Shwydky (ed.). The Malahat Review (205).
  • Varghese, R. (2018). 鈥淗ow to Tell a Shattered Story about the Atomic Bomb?鈥� on Lines of Flight: An Atomic Memoir by Julie Salverson. TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 167-172.
  • Varghese, R. (2018). Reading from Behind: A Cultural Analysis of the Anus by Jonathan A. Allan. University of Toronto Quarterly, 87(3), 351-353.

Select Non-Refereed Publications:

  • Varghese, R., & Rozario, V. (2022, March 9). Care and Historical Memory: An Exchange. Arts Everywhere.
  • Varghese, R. (2020, March). Hold Everything Dear: Hajra Waheed at The Power Plant [Exhibition review]. Art Asia Pacific.
  • Varghese, R. (2019). Revisiting the Uncanny: Indu Antony's While I Slept [Exhibition review]. Rungh, 7(1).
  • Varghese, R. (2019, October 30). Blur: Sandra Brewster at Art Gallery of Ontario [Exhibtion review].  Peripheral Review.
  • Varghese, R. (2019, Fall). Jack Bush and Francisco-Fernando Granados at Robert McLaughlin Gallery [Exhibition review]. Canadian Art.