LGBTQ+ Research Seminar Series

Many UK collections have historically excluded LGBTQ+ stories. For this series, the gender and sexuality network has invited scholars, community builders and SMG representatives to showcase their work, discuss opportunities and challenges faced inside and outside of the museum setting. Our objective is to create a discursive environment and look to future practical activities.

There will be stories of how queerness is lived in a variety of communities as well as the intersection of science, technology and LGBTQ+ history. There will be an exploration of who is represented in galleries and the role of social media as a way to transcend the ‘gallery’, to tell otherwise untold stories. Research will also be showcased—into a queer cataloguing project and a toolkit that uncovers hidden gendered and/or queer stories in museum collections.

Seminars

Timings below are for London—find out when this is in your time zone. 

Queering the Science Museum Group

Tuesday 17 January, 13:00-14:00

• Dr. Arran J Rees (he/him) is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Leeds and is currently working on the Congruence Engine project with the Science Museum Group. Starting out as a curator, and later collections manager, Arran's research interests converge around museum collections management, collecting practices, digital culture, and action-focused research methodologies. This talk will offer some initial insights into a survey of museums undertaking queer-related collections work, to understand how the recent proliferation of excellent queer museum projects are trickling back into the cataloguing processes of museums, becoming part of their core knowledge structures.
• Ashlynn Welburn (she/her) has been working in the Collections & Research team at the National Railway Museum since 2017, and one of the areas she worked on developing projects around (since late 2018) is the absence of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the interpretation and content of our collections. After securing a small amount of funding towards the end of December 2021, Ashlynn spent the first 2.5 months of 2022 developing this work further. This included building up plans for an oral history and collecting project with the community, and creating a research report to help identify themes with high promise and interest for research and new collection interpretations. This presentation will provide a glimpse into how Ashlynn approached this work, some of the themes she looked at in the report, and future plans.
• Dr. Eleanor Armstrong (she/her) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Stockholm University, where she researches informal science education, specifically thinking about how identity and geography shape the narratives taught about science. She will discuss her recent paper 'Towards Queer Tours in Science and Technology Museums' and her larger work on bringing queer science studies to public audiences.

Uncovering Untold Stories in Historic Collections

Tuesday 31 January, 13:00-14:00 

• Dr. Kit Heyam (they/them) is a queer historian, writer, heritage practitioner and trans awareness trainer. They are the author of 'Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender' (Basic Books UK/Seal Press), described by the New York Times as ‘a vital contribution to our understanding of gender variance and its place in social and political history, all around the world’; and the co-author of 'Gendering the Museum: A Toolkit', a practical guide to finding hidden histories of gender in museums, produced through a collaborative project with the V&A and Stockholm’s Vasa Museum. In this talk, Kit will draw on both of these recent publications to inspire new ways to uncover queer history in SMG and beyond.
• Mark Etheridge (he/him) is Curator for LGBTQ+ History at St Fagans National Museum of History, part of Amgueddfa Cymru—Museum Wales. He is currently actively building up the museum’s LGBTQ+ collection and promoting this collecting-drive to raise awareness of the importance of museum representation in telling the story of Wales’ LGBTQ+ history. This talk will look at how Mark has built up the collection over the past few years, and how it is now being used in displays, events, and research, as well as uncovering hidden stories in the collection.

Bridging Gaps and Building Community Bridges

Tuesday 14 February, 13:00-14:00

• Marc Thompson (he/him) is a creative, an activist, health promotion specialist and podcaster, who has been at the forefront of HIV activism and education since his own diagnosis 1986. Marc is currently the co-director of The Love Tank CIC, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes the health and wellbeing of under-served communities through education, capacity building and research. Marc has co-founded and developed a range of movements, groups and activities for Black, queer and HIV communities over the past ten years including Prepster and Blackout UK. Marc curated the digital archive and podcast series ‘Black and Gay, Back in the Day’ documenting Black LGBT life in Britain since the 1970s, launched his podcast series We Were Always Here, telling the story of the UK HIV epidemic through unheard voices, featured in the BBC2 series 'Saved by a Stranger', Sky TV documentary 'Positive' and The Guardians 'Outspoken' series and 'Freddie Mercury: The Final Act'.
• Nicola Minney (she/her) is a collections researcher for the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL). As part of the Arts Council Funded ‘Building Connections’ Project she has explored themes of decolonisation, migration and LGBTQ+ stories in rural collections. Her talk will cover the exhibition 'Queer Constellations' which explores how museum collections and archives were used to tell the previously untold stories of gay men in rural England. The exhibition also featured LGBTQ+ artists from rural areas, whose work was displayed alongside historical objects.

LGBTQ+ Voices On The Ground

Tuesday 28 February, 13:00-14:00

• Aimee Salt (she/her) works as a digital producer in the New Media team at the Science Museum. Aimee will talk about the importance of building community, what that looks like in practice and why representation is so crucial.
• Katherine Logan (she/they) is a Schools and Families Producer at the Science and Industry Museum. Katherine’s presentation will explore identity, humour and her work at the museum.
• Dani Bryers (she/her) is a Schools and Families Producer at the Science and Industry Museum. Dani’s talk will explore themes of allyship and activism within the LGBTQ+ community.
• Harriet Jackson, Laura Büllesbach, Matthew Howles and Dr Rebecca Mellor are curators at the Science Museum Group. They will discuss their approach to building and developing an LGBTQ+ staff network, including the publication of a LGBTQ+ trail around the Science Museum.

How to join

Tickets are free. We just ask you to register.

You will be able to join the seminars in person or online. If you select online attendance, after registration, you will receive a link shortly before each event. For in-person tickets, these are capped at 30 people per event.

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