Rate My Professor Guy Davidson

Professor Guy Davidson is Professor of English Literatures in the School of Creative Arts and Humanities at the University of Wollongong, within the Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. He joined the University of Wollongong in 2000 and has since designed, convened, and taught a wide range of subjects spanning first-year undergraduate courses to postgraduate Master of Arts coursework programs. Davidson currently serves as Head of Postgraduate Studies for the Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, overseeing graduate research probation and related responsibilities. His long-standing career at the institution reflects his commitment to both teaching excellence and academic leadership in English literatures.

Guy Davidson's research specializes in the interconnections of literature and sexuality, with a primary focus on American literature. He is a recognized scholar in queer literary studies, exploring themes such as queer commodities, literary celebrity, sexual dissidence, and modernism through the lenses of authors including Henry James, Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, Susan Sontag, and Patrick White. Key publications include the monograph Queer Commodities: Tourism and Gay Male Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), which analyzes subcultures in gay literature; Categorically Famous: Literary Celebrity and Sexual Modernity (Edinburgh University Press, 2019); the co-edited Literary Careers in the Modern Era (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) with Nicola Evans; and Queer Objects (Routledge, 2023, co-edited with Monique Rooney). Selected journal articles feature "'Just a couple of fags': Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, and celebrity feud" (Celebrity Studies, 2016), "The closet of the third person: Susan Sontag, sexual dissidence, and celebrity" (2008), "Displaying the monster: Patrick White, sexuality, celebrity" (2005), and "Generic Gayness: Andrew Holleran's Dancer from the Dance" (Novel: A Forum on Fiction, 2024). Davidson is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and received a 2025 Vice-Chancellor's Award. His scholarship has advanced queer theory and American literary studies, influencing academic discourse on sexuality and celebrity in literature.