Colton Barton is a second-year master's student in the English Department at the University of Kentucky, where he also earned a B.S. in English and a B.A. in Gender & Women's Studies. His work most often centers on queer and feminist theories, with particular attention to how 20th- and 21st-century American literature and culture engages with, resists, or reinforces prevailing ideas about sexuality. He is currently completing his thesis, "No Hope?: Queer Negativity, Afropessimism, and the Limits of Futurity," which explores the intersections of queer theory and Afropessimism through novels by James Baldwin and Octavia Butler.