Mark Ray Lockwood

Mark Lockwood is a Ronald E. McNair Graduate Fellow in the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. He earned a MA in Performance Studies from New York University and a BA in Women’s & Gender Studies and English from Rutgers University – New Brunswick. Mark is currently building on his theoretical framework he previously explored during his time at NYU. This framework centers black queer performance and masculinity in order to consider how black gay sex workers are represented in the gay porn market, while also critiquing an industry that profits from what Kobena Mercer calls “racial fetishism.” His dissertation looks at the figure of the “homo-thug” and argues for a more nuanced approach towards sexualized representations of black men in hardcore moving-image media. Mark’s dissertation pays attention to how black gay sex workers understand the political stakes of their representations and instead deploy what he calls “black inches” – a performative strategy that is tethered to black men’s racial-sexual history – to invoke agency where it is assumed to not exist. Drawing from black queer studies, race and visual culture, performance studies, and critical porn studies, Mark’s project provides new methods for reading black queer agency and sexuality in pornographic texts.