Dr Jacob Bird

Having received his degree in Music from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Jacob continued his postgraduate study with Professor Jason Stanyek at the University of Oxford. His doctoral thesis, titled Becoming Queen: Voices, Bodies, and Technologies in Drag Lip-Sync Performance, used ethnographic material with five London-based drag queens to create a theory of lip-syncing as voice, with psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and queer theory underpinning his methodology. This research is to be published as a monograph with Bloomsbury Academic in the coming year.

Jacob’s most recent research however focuses on noise music in queer contexts, analysing the interdependence between noise and queer theory. This research understands noise broadly, with focuses on harsh wall noise, extended instrumental technique, avant-garde body shock performance, and punk. This research has formed the Queer Noise Prelims course at the University of Oxford, for which he is course convenor.

Beyond academia, Jacob is an operatic dramaturg, with a debut production of The Marriage of Figaro at New York City’s Little Island in 2024. This production reimagined the opera for solo performance, with Anthony Roth Costanzo singing every role. In 2026, Jacob will make his European debut with the Opéra National de Paris as dramaturg for their production of Glass’s Satyagraha at the Palais Garnier. He is also researching for Anthony Roth Costanzo’s upcoming book Countertenor, to be published with Farrar, Straus, Giroux, and has done editorial work for Yuval Sharon’s new book A New Philosophy of Opera.

Jacob is a drag performer under the pseudonym Dinah Lux, and has worked with clients such as Jean-Paul Gaultier, Gucci, and Yves Saint Laurent. Dinah also performs classical piano, with concerts for Classical Pride 2024 and 2025, as well as an Artist Residency at the International Festival d’Hyères.