Queer Histories
25 February 2019 - 17:45
Come to Hertford College on the 25 February to celebrate LGBT+ History Month with an evening of three wonderful talks from three wonderful people.
Each of our speakers will talk for 20 minutes and afterwards there will be an opportunity for questions, drinks and snacks.
Professor Emma Smith is Oxford University’s Professor of Shakespeare Studies, and the Tutor for Equality & Diversity at Hertford College. She has published widely on Shakespeare and recently presented the ‘Binary and Beyond’ series on BBC Radio 3, investigating gender fluidity across history. She’ll be tracing the ways people have interacted with the queer dimensions of Shakespeare’s plays, especially Twelfth Night, and how developments in queer theory and activism can be understood through the lens of Shakespearean criticism.
Iris Lo is a DPhil scholar in Sociology who looks at non-heterosexual women in China (lalas) and how queer people relate to family and home. She’s done fieldwork in Beijing to research these topics and has also worked as a research assistant for UN Women, collaborating with schools and NGOs on issues around gender. She’ll be talking about the ways lalas build families, and how they challenge social norms and queer the boundaries of the family unit, even when their existence is rendered invisible by the dominant discourse of heterosexuality.
Lloyd Houston is a DPhil scholar in Irish Literature and investigates the politics of sexual health and queer modernism. Their work has appeared in the Irish Studies Review, Times Literary Supplement, and The Guardian – and their research contributed to the recent exhibition in the Weston Library, ‘Story of Phi: Restricted Books’. They’ll be talking about unearthing the Bodleian’s queer history and books, and exploring what it means to ‘find oneself in the library’ as a LGBT+ person in Oxford.
This event is accessible. If you have any questions or concerns please contact the JCR’s Equal Opportunities Rep, Fenella Sentance, or see the Facebook event listing.