Home
Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion
Conference

Why (Queer) History Matters: The Politics of History

International, interdisciplinary conference, 29–30 August 2022.

Cencorship by Eric Drooker
In this conference we hear reflections and examples on how and why queer history matters in different contexts.
Photo:
Cencorship by Eric Drooker

Main content

Watch the recordings of the conference below:

Neglect and erasure of queer history has been the norm in all national histories until quite recently. In this conference we address how this highly problematic practice of history can also enable the eradication of LGBT+ rights in contemporary societies. For, in some places LGBT communities are seen as a national threat while in others, homo-tolerance is instrumentalized to build national self-identity. In both cases, interest in and knowledge of queer history is usually absent. In this conference we therefore ask: How are national histories cleansed of unwanted elements? What role does ignorance and censorship play? Can the lack of knowledge of queer history be fundamental to contemporary oppression of queers? If so, what can be done to preserve and disseminate queer histories?

In this conference we hear reflections and examples on how and why queer history matters in different contexts. Norway officially opened its national queer archive here in Bergen in 2015, and queer history is slowly starting to appear as a legitimate academic field in line with other academic fields of research also in Norway.

PROGRAMME

29 August

10:00

Registration. Possibility of visiting the queer history exhibition at the University Museum of Bergen 

11:00

Welcome by Margareth Hagen, Rector at the University of Bergen

CHAIR:

Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, Professor of Social Anthropology and Academic Director of the Holberg Prize, University of Bergen

11:10

Norway & the queer history context – the Norwegian Queer archive by Tone Hellesund, Professor of Cultural Studies, University of Bergen

11:45

Lunch 

12:45

The roots of Russian homophobia, and why historical research matters by Dan Healey, Professor of Russian History, University of Oxford

13:15

Break

13:30

Queer history and neoliberal Islam by Evren Savci, Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Yale University

14:00

Postsocialist homophobia and the lesson of histories past, present, and future by Hadley Z. Renkin, Assistant Professor in Gender Studies, Central European University

14:30

Break

15:00–
16:15

Panel discussion: Culture wars and queer history

Participants: Dan HealeyEvren Savci and Hadley Z. Renkin

Chair: Ingunn Lunde, Professor in Russian Language and Culture, University of Bergen

17:30–
18:30

Conference reception at KODE, hosted by the City of Bergen (for all participants)

Welcome by the Mayor of Bergen, Rune Bakervik

19:00–
21:30

How to document and tell queer history? 
Public event at The House of Literature in collaboration with Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF) (not streamed).

Screening of Susan Stryker’s film Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria (57 minutes) followed by a discussion involving Susan Stryker, Hadley Renkin, C. Anzio Jacobs, Dan Healey and Svati Shah. 

Chair: Kari Jegerstedt, Head of the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research, University of Bergen 

Watch recordings from day one:

1/3 CONFERENCE: Why (Queer) History Matters: The Politics of History

30 August

CHAIR:

Andrea Vige Grønningsæter, PhD candidate at the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen

09:00

Queer archives and activism in India by Jayna Kothari, Executive Director at Centre for Law & Policy Research and Akkai Padmashali, Indian transgender activist

09:40

White words & violence: A queer African herstory by C. Anzio Jacobs, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Scope Non-Profit Organisation, South Africa

10:10

Queer history in the USA. The development of trans history and the uses of transgender history for the present by Susan Stryker, Professor Emerita of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona & Stanford University Humanities Center External Faculty Fellow (2022-23)

10:40

Break

10:50

Panel discussion: Trans histories in a global perspective

Participants:  Jayna KothariAkkai PadmashaliC. Anzio Jacobs and Susan Stryker

Chair: Angana P. Chatterji, Research Anthropologist at the Center for Race and Gender at University of California, Berkeley

12:00

Lunch

CHAIR:

Ana Côrtes, PhD candidate at the Centre on Law and Social Transformation, University of Bergen

13:00

The politics of sexuality in Latin America by Javier Corrales, Professor of Political Science at Amherst College

13:30

Sexualities and the uses of history in different African contexts by Sylvia Tamale, Professor of Law, Makerere University

14:00

Mapping queerness in postcolonial South Asian worlds by Svati Shah, Associate Professor, Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst

14:30

Break

14:45–
16:15

Panel discussion: The promise and future of queer history making.

All speakers are welcome to attend the discussion

Chair:  Matt Cook, Professor of Modern History, Birkbeck, London University

16:30

Possibility of a guided tour at the Queer exhibition at the KODE Art Museum (KODE 1, Nordahl Bruns gate 9).

Watch recordings from day two, part one:

2/3 CONFERENCE: Why (Queer) History Matters: The Politics of History

Watch recordings from day two, part two:

3/3 CONFERENCE: Why (Queer) History Matters: The Politics of History