Mercury Natis

Queer Historian ☆ Tolkien Scholar ☆ Pleasure Activist

About

Mercury (they/he) is an early career academic and PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow, with a focus on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Queer Theory/History. They are also interested in the Gothic Fantastic, Interwar Fantasy, and the First World War. They have a BA in Art History, a previous MA in Museum Education, Museum and Customer Service experience.

What I Can Do For You

  • Conference paper & lecture consultations

  • research

  • beta reading & content editing

  • sensitivity reading

  • history & literature tutoring

  • transcription

  • digital collections management

  • object-based learning in classrooms & museums

  • admin / reception / diary management

  • Interested in something not listed but related? Feel free to ask!

Recent Conferences & Publications

  • “Philia, Eros, Pragma: Reading Sam and Frodo through the Greek Loves”, Oxonmoot 2024

  • "Transgender Retrofuturisms (roundtable)", Worldcon 2024

  • "“The Torment of Maedhros and a Crisis of Mercy”, IMC Leeds 2024

  • "Letting the Beastly Beast Go: Navigating compulsory heterosexuality through King Pellinore and the Questing Beast in The Once and Future King”, Gifcon 2024

  • "To See the Man Behind the Tan and Fight for Ken: Ken’s Transmasculine Journey through Toxic Masculinity to Self-Respect", PopCRN Barbie Conference 2024

  • "Sauron, Seduction, and the Queering Mechanism of the Ring", Mythcon OMS 2024 (video)

  • "The Squint-Eyed Southerner as a Case Study of Orientalism in The Lord of the Rings", Mallorn, Issue 64, Winter 2023

  • “Baruk Khazâd! Antisemitism, Jewish Joy, and Dwarven Contexts”, Tolkien Society Winter Seminar 2023 (youtube)

  • “Gender Essentialism in Amazon’s The Rings of Power (roundtable)”, IMC Leeds 2023 (blog)

  • “Sauron’s Femme Fatale Sources and Their Role in the Númenor Narrative”, Tolkien Society Seminar 2023 (youtube)

  • “And its Folks are Queerer: Queer Marginality and the Chosen Family Dynamics of the Bagginses of Bag-End” Gifcon 2023 + Oxonmoot 2023

  • “Orientalism in The Lord of the Rings, the Squint-Eyed Southerner and his context (roundtable)”, IMC Kalamazoo 2023

  • “Partners in Making and Delight: Tolkien and Camp, an exploration of sensibility”, Oxonmoot 2022

  • Review: “Tolkien, Enchantment, and Loss by John Rosegrant”, Mallorn, Issue 63, Winter 2022