Panel proposal ESSHC, Lyon (France), 21-24 April 2027 The History of Queer Nightlife: Spaces, Feelings and Transformations ‘Queer nightlife’, as the introduction to a recent special issue of The Sociological Quarterly notes, ‘is having a moment’. In the past five years, social scientists and cultural theorists have published more than ten book-length studies of queer bars, nightscapes, dancefloors and parties. Many of them focus on the ‘closure epidemic’ facing gay bars, or highlight the recent transformations of queer nightlife. They often intersect their analyses with arguments about urban redevelopment and gentrification, changing queer identities, and the digitalization of queer life. However, a longer-term historical perspective is often missing in these studies. For example, is the ‘closure epidemic’ that sociologists observe a recent phenomenon or have spaces of queer nightlife always been precarious? What other transformations has queer nightlife gone through over the past decades and centuries? This panel will discuss queer nightlife from a ‘longue durée’ perspective, covering different periods and regions to nuance and make sense of the recent developments social scientists are describing. Throughout the different papers we will explore topics such as inclusion, exclusion, spaces, bodies, emotions and experiences as relevant points of discussion on queer nightlife’s history. We propose that nightlife has been essential for the development of queer spaces and communities, for stimulating transnational mobilities and exchanges, and for shaping identities and subjectivities. By giving nightlife its due place, we will gain a new understanding of these foundational topics in queer history. We are looking for participants who can present a paper as part of this panel: if you are interested, please contact e.l.hofman@uu.nl and t.e.vanvoorthuizen@uu.nl before 1 April 2026. More information on the conference can be found at https://esshc.iisg.amsterdam/

With @tijmenelias.bsky.social I'm hoping to organize a panel on *The History of Queer Nightlife* for @esshc.bsky.social in Lyon (21-24 April 2027). If you want to be part of the fun, get in touch by 1 April! (Reposts also appreciated!) #QueerHistory

Today is the day! Record your day and be part of recording queer lives and histories in the UK. Sketch, type, write, or photograph your day. Even if you think your day isn't very interesting we'd still love to have it in our collection! All types of days, boring or brilliant are welcome #LGBTplusHM

Cover of Sex Isn't Real: The Invention of an Incoherent Binary by Beans Velocci. The cover features a mesh grid pattern in an off white against a black background. The title is written large in a serif font in the center of the cover. Each word is a different color— ‘sex’ is a light orange; ‘isn’t’ is a grey blue; ‘real’ is a teal. The subtitle is directly below in white. The author’s name is above the title also in white.

In their new book "Sex Isn't Real," Beans Velocci traces the history of current high stakes attempts to define sex and to create a world devoid of trans life. Read a Q&A about their bold argument on the blog today. buff.ly/hB1k4Cw

LGBTQ+ History Month: 'Scottish trans pasts, useable and otherwise?' | School of History, Classics & Archaeology | History Classics and Archaeology Celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month with Dr Sam Rutherford and learn more about the last 150 years of trans history in Scotland.

I am giving the Edinburgh Uni LGBTQ+ History Month lecture on the evening of 27 February, with the title 'Scottish Trans Pasts, Useable and Otherwise'. Details and link to register are here: hca.ed.ac.uk/updates-even... Do come along if you're in Edinburgh!

Really looking forward to this!

A few more days to get your proposals to us!

Call for papers: “The nineteenth century saw profound transformations in how being and embodiment were figured across British culture. Art and science were at the forefront of these changes. As new forms of subjectivity were being formulated, the relationship between the self and the body, and between the body and life itself, were being reconfigured in visual productions and scientific writings alike. These transformations were entangled with new, ambivalent, and profoundly modern ways of thinking about gender, sexuality, form, and the nature and limits of the human. In Victorian art, the body was opened up to forces and flows which constituted and exceeded it. This panel invites papers which centre trans studies as a lens through which to explore these turbulent transformations in nineteenth-century art. What modes of…”

“… embodiment, being, or becoming come into view when Victorian visual culture is approached via trans theory? What kinds of subjects and materials come to matter differently? What are the uses of transness— attuned to transition, indeterminacy, multiplicity, and bodily change—as a theoretical and historical framework? We invite 20-minute papers exploring British art (broadly conceived) in the long nineteenth century through the lens of trans theory and/or from trans perspectives. Topics might include, but are not limited to: • The (un) making of the human; nonhuman bodies; monstrosity; animality • Ecology, metamorphosis, bodies and environments • Racialization of sex, gender, and embodiment • Coloniality of gender; imperialism and difference • Transness and disability; mutable, prosthetic, and anomalous bodies • Fairytales, folklore, myth, and transformation • Spirituality and immaterial bodies • Sexology and medical imaging”

Calling all c19 art and queer theory ppl! @frankiedytor.bsky.social and I are still welcoming proposals for our #AAH panel on c19 British art after trans studies: see CFP below. #c19 #lgbtqhistory

The Absolute Units art. Three giant sheep hover over the English countryside.

🐏 New Absolute Units 🐏

Same-sex relationships have always been part of rural England, but they've been underrepresented in our collections.

In the first of 2 episodes, @timjerrome.bsky.social shares his work tracing queer rural lives in The MERL archives.

merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...

So excited that my article 'Michael Field’s “Caenis Caeneus”: Transmasculine Poetics at the Fin de Siècle', co-written with the fantastic @frankiedytor.bsky.social, is out in the world!
& in great company with @preraphsrule.bsky.social @kristinmahoney.bsky.social @nathankhensley.bsky.social & more!

The summer has seen anti-trans campaigns across the UK and US, alongside a crisis in healthcare. But what use could trans history have in these time, beyond proving 'we have always been here'?

Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo reflects on Imagining Trans Futures:
www.historyworkshop....

A poster advertising an upcoming talk at the Centre for Victorian Studies, featuring the front cover of the verse drama 'World at Auction' by Michael Field.

🗓️ Join us on Wednesday 26 March as we welcome @carolyndever.bsky.social to speak on "Speculative Biography: What Edith Knew" - a paper that explores the ethical challenges of reading the poet couple Michael Field not as one, but as two.

Open to all!
Please message if you would like a teams link.

A photograph of a projector screen in the cast gallery of the Museum of Classical Archaeology.

Last night saw the launch of QUEER CLASSICS in the iconic cast gallery of the Museum of Classical Archaeology in Cambridge. We screened the 1922 silent film Salomé - Alla Nazimova's decadent retelling of Oscar Wilde's scandalous play. Thanks all who came!

Hello, world! The Universityof Exeter Centre for Victorian Studies has moved to this platform, and will share news of its activities here. Posts will be created members of the CVS.