so many jonathan grays

There are many Jonathan Grays out there. So many Jonathan Grays doing so many different things as though in the multiverse of Everything Everywhere All at Once. As anyone with a common name will know, this can feel – variously – strange, unsettling, sometimes comfortingly decentring.

There are several Jonathan Grays who are researchers, including in cultural studies, media studies, communication studies, and other humanities and social research fields. We’ve received emails, invitations and algorithmically generated “is this you?” notifications meant for other Jonathan Grays. In search engine results, bibliographic indices and library catalogues our pages, records and publication lists have been merged and entangled together.

While many of my publications and writings (2012-2022) have been published simply as Jonathan Gray, as of 2022 I’ve started using my middle initials and writing as Jonathan W. Y. Gray as a belated (and somewhat half-hearted) contribution towards disambiguiation. Apart from that I can’t but affirm the ambiguities of authorship and identification that comes with a common name - like an accidental Luther Blissett or nominal hive mind.

In the spirit of the Grace Lee project here are some of the other Jonathan Grays on the internet. If you’re another Jonathan Gray, say hi!

• Jonathan Gray, the accountant
• Jonathan Gray, the artificial intelligence researcher
• Jonathan Gray, the aviation official
• Jonathan Gray, the banker and lecturer
• Jonathan Gray, the bass player, educator and arctic explorer
• Jonathan Gray, the baseball player
• Jonathan Gray, the billionaire
• Jonathan Gray, the book jacket designer
• Jonathan Gray, the boxer
• Jonathan Gray, the ceramics researcher and president of English Ceramic Circle
• Jonathan Gray, the comic book artist
• Jonathan Gray, the communication studies professor
• Jonathan Gray, the critical infrastructure studies researcher
• Jonathan Gray, the cricketer
• Jonathan Gray, the dance critic and editor of Dancing Times
• Jonathan Gray, the data scientist
• Jonathan Gray, the dental surgeon
• Jonathan Gray, the designer
• Jonathan Gray, the district councillor
• Jonathan Gray, the financial analyst
• Jonathan Gray, the healthcare executive
• Jonathan Gray, the judge
• Jonathan Gray, the landscape artist
• Jonathan Gray, the literature and cultural studies professor
• Jonathan Gray, the media studies professor
• Jonathan Gray, the medical negligence lawyer
• Jonathan Gray, the nursing and midwifery lecturer
• Jonathan Gray, the pseudonym of novelist Herbert Adams
• Jonathan Gray, the risk consultant
• Jonathan Gray, the singer-songwriter
• Jonathan Gray, the social worker
• Jonathan Gray, the surveyor
• Jonathan Gray, the tennis player
• Jonathan Gray, the TV producer
• Jonathan Gray, the underwriting officer
• Jonathan Gray, the wealth manager