About
I first moved from New York to Manchester in 2014 to complete my Masters in Social Anthropology at The University of Manchester. After I stayed at the university to begin a PhD in Sociology, which I completed in February 2021 and I am now a Sociology Lecturer.
My work explores lesbian visibility in queer spaces in the UK and mainly focuses on feminist theory and practices concerning gender and sexuality studies. I am excited to continue working on LGBTQ research and all the new opportunities that are ahead.
Thanks for visiting! If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch. My contact information is at the bottom of this page.
Research Interests
Like many other queer researchers, my work derives from my experiences as an LGBTQ person who is interested in further exploring ideas around queer cultures and history. This led me to explore lesbian lives and ideas around identity, belonging, visibility, and power. Specifically, I research how all four of these aspects interrelate in LGBTQ people's experiences of queer social spaces.
I employ a standpoint feminist approach and specifically use intersectionality as a tool to learn and explore the diversity of lesbian lives, experiences and perspectives.
My work centres lesbian experiences to help understand the politics of visibility in queer spaces. Whilst I have dedicated years to lesbian studies, I am also eager to explore the concepts of identity, visibility and belonging amongst other LGBTQ groups.
Current Projects
Below you will find the projects I am currently working on. The majority of my projects focus on working with LGBTQ communities in and outside of academia.
Manchester Village Stories
Manchester Village Stories is a research project at The University of Manchester. We are interested in learning about:
People's experiences of Manchester’s Gay Village
Why and how the Village is important as an LGBTQ+ space
If and how people's everyday experiences and feelings about the village have changed over time
How people think the Village should look in the future
Our goal is to evoke an image of what the Village was, what it is, and what it could become by opening up a conversation about the kinds of spaces, venues and services that have existed in the Village, exist now, or people would like in the future. .
I am always eager to work on new and innovative research and projects that consider topics such as LGBTQ cultures and feminism. I am also interested in working on how to develop methods that focus on inclusivity and reflexivity. Please feel free to reach out, you can find my email below
Past Projects
Manchester Histories Consultancy Project
Co-production guide to using Archival and Heritage Collections
We worked on a collaborative and inter-disciplinary project for Manchester Histories, a local charity who wanted to create a toolkit that provides best practices for co-production projects.
We successfully created the toolkit to enables best-practice collaboration and co-creation between archivists, artists and community groups to help maximise the potential of historic collections in bringing archives and hidden histories to life. This was achieved by investigating the challenges faced by artists and archivists who have experience in working on co-production projects.
Innovations in Online Research
A regional, academic network to unite postgraduate researchers across the North West of England interested in online research methods
We sought to bring together postgraduate researchers from various disciplines across the social sciences for a workshop event and to create a social network to support one another's research.
Acting as the launch of the "Innovations in Online Research" network, we held a PGR-led event on May 9th 2019 which stimulated an important debate on the usage of online methods for social science research, covering the following aims:
Share ways of using online research to stimulate an important debate on developing innovative ways that tackle key research challenges
Critically engage with the methodological and ethical issues of online research
Establish a postgraduate online research network for more sustained collaboration
Publications
Hansen, B., L. St. Clair & J. Mancuso (2015), ‘Paranormal Beliefs in College Culture: “In my house we have a ghost named Isaiah.”’ Paranthropology 6(2): 32-49
Mancuso, J (in prep) ‘Outsider Within: Being an Insider and Outsider as a lesbian researcher’ in Fieldwork: experiences and learnings from the context of crisis Ed. Francisca Ortiz and Tiba Bonyad
Mancuso, J. (in prep) ‘Feminist Standpoint Theory is Still Relevant to Sociology and Here’s why’
Mancuso, J. (in prep), ‘Re-Theorizing the Gay Village: Lesbian Lives and the Politics of Homopatriarchy’
Mancuso, J. (in prep), ‘Challenging the Narrative of Lesbian Invisibility’