CN Lester is researching the life and works of Barbara Strozzi supervised by Dr Lisa Colton in the Centre for the Study of Music, Gender and Identity. Musician and activist CN Lester is completing a PhD project at the University of Huddersfield, investigating and appraising an important but neglected woman composer of the 1600s, but has also published a highly contemporary new book on transgender issues that is being described as ‘agenda setting’.