Virtual Folger Salon with Mathieu Bouchard, Lee Cotman, and Julia Skinner

Lost in the Collation Line: John Hughes and English Editorial History
2026-27 Folger Institute Fellow

This project focuses on the life and work of the poet, playwright, and translator John Hughes (1677-1720), with a particular attention to his literary editing. In 1715, Hughes edited The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, which was published by Jacob Tonson. There is also evidence to suggest that he was the anonymous editor both of Tonson’s 1714 edition of The Works of Mr. William Shakespear and of Tonson’s 1719 edition of Paradise Lost. Hughes was unusually prolific, but much of his editing was done anonymously. At the Folger, I will study Tonson’s manuscripts, as well as a series of letters by members of Hughes’s family, in order to get a fuller understanding of Hughes’s involvement in Tonson’s publications. More broadly, the project examines the role of anonymity in eighteenth-century editing and the ways in which modern scholarship has, and has not, accounted for the labour of scholars like Hughes.

All in Jest: a screenplay exploring gender non-conformity in 15th-century England
2026-27 Folger Institute Artistic Research Fellow

Lee Cotman (they/them) makes art for and about working-class people.

A museum educator-turned-screenwriter, they write fictional screenplays about people whose names have been lost to time. They are a Master’s student and Graduate Diversity Fellow at Empire State University, studying queer and trans history and its representations in medieval cinema. Lee’s research focuses on the lived experiences of marginalized people during the medieval/early modern transitional period. Their current project (which they promise will have a happy ending) is a feature-length screenplay following a transmasculine acrobat in 15th-century England.

Lee is also a founding member of the project team for Always Here: a Queer+Trans Global Medieval Sourcebook (led by Professor Bridget Whearty, Binghamton University), and received a 2025 juried residency with the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. In their off-hours, they tend a native garden, ride bikes with their kid, and clown around at Circus Culture.

Fermented Pasts and Futures (working title)
2026-27 Folger Institute Artistic Research Fellow

Julia Skinner is a food historian, writer, visual artist, and entrepreneur as well as a fermentation enthusiast and culinary educator. She has a PhD in Library & Information Science, and focused on Early Modern cookbook history during her time at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. Skinner is a former special collections professional, and is passionate about using food as a bridge between history and the modern world. Her work at the Folger explores how fermentation appears in Early Modern texts, both literally as fermented foods and figuratively as a metaphor. Skinner is the author of multiple books including Our Fermented Lives and Essential Food Preserving, and lives between Atlanta, GA and Cork, Ireland.