T. J. Bacon

Dr T. J. Bacon is a Research Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (GSMD), affiliated with the De-Centre for Socially Engaged Practice & Research. She specializes in performance art, phenomenology, and queer/trans theory, co-authoring influential works like An Introduction to the Phenomenology of Performance Art: SELF/s (2022) and The Phenomenology of Blood in Performance Art (2025). Her practice integrates art, activism, and academia, focusing on trans+ identities, disability, and socially engaged research. She supervises PhD students at GSMD, emphasizing experimental methodologies.

Education: PhD in Experiencing a Multiplicity of Self/s (University of Bristol, 2017), MA in Performance (Goldsmiths, 2006), BA in English & Theatre Studies (London Metropolitan University, 2003), and PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education (University of Greenwich, 2007).

Research interests include queer phenomenology, crip theory, disaster studies, and futures. She co-created the Performance for Futures methodology through an EU/UNESCO project (2020–2023) and founded the Trans+ Virtual Centre of Excellence (2024), a global network advocating trans+ inclusion. She also curates the Tempting Failure performance festival and serves as an external examiner at University of the Arts London (UAL).

Her work challenges oppressive structures through art, blending interdisciplinary practices with radical pedagogy. Recent projects explore queered esoterica and temporal resistance, emphasizing hope as a transformative force.