Dr Louis Shankar is a writer, researcher, editor, and teacher based in East London. Their research sits at the overlap of art history, queer theory, and psychoanalysis; their research interests include artistic responses to HIV/AIDS in North America and Europe; the Downtown Manhattan artistic scene, 1969–1999; and contemporary trans* and non-binary artistic practice. They are an editor at The BitterSweet Review, a magazine of new queer art and writing. They have had essays and criticism published in The Whitney Review, Brooklyn Rail, Spike, Dirty Furniture, and elsewhere.