David O'Mullane

Dr David O’Mullane is a guest lecturer and a member of the Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities (IRGS) at Dublin City University (DCU). In his PhD, Haunted Sex: Queer Art and the Spectral Politics of Cruising, David used representations of cruising cultures in contemporary art and theory to explore how the past informs gay/queer sexual politics in the present. Theorising queer sex as haunted – by the sting of abjection, the trauma of loss, the idealistic hopes of liberation and queer futurity – David’s research demonstrated how the gravitational force of these spectral pasts can overburden sex with meaning, agency and ethicopolitical potential. Adopting a deidealizing approach to cruising cultures allowed him to engage a more nuanced analysis of sexual politics, untethering dissident sexual practices from the responsibility of realising dystopia or utopia.

He is the co-organizer of the 2023 SEX Pan!cs International Conference and cofounder of Cruising, a forthcoming print publication produced with artist and academic Matt Ryalls. His research and teaching interests encompass queer studies and critical theory; art history and artivism; film and fashion studies; and medical humanities.