1. Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures
  2. School of Languages, Cultures and Societies
  3. Centres and groups
  4. Queer Area Studies Network
  5. Queer Area Studies Network: Research Projects, Events and Conferences

Queer Area Studies Network: Research Projects, Events and Conferences

Queer area studies network

Members of our network are engaged in a wide range of research activities in the field of queer area studies across several disciplines within the humanities and social sciences:

  • ‘Towards a Queer Radicalism: Understanding the State and Capitalism as Regimes of Heterocoloniality in the Middle East’ lead by Andrew Delatolla.
  • ‘Lebanon's Global LGBTIQ+ Engagements: Between Representation and Neoliberalism in the Queer Economy’, by Andrew Delatolla with Hussein Cheaito.
  • 'Queer Experience in the Holocaust', co-led by Helen Finch with Roseanna Ramsden, International Workshop on 16 April 2024 (funded by the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies).
  • 'Queer Holocaust Literature since 1970', contribution by Helen Finch to The Cambridge History of Holocaust Literature, eds. McGlothlin, Taberner, forthcoming 2026.
  • 'Queer Memory and Futurity in German culture', new project in development by Helen Finch.
  • ‘Russian and Russophone LGBTQI+’, international conference (New York, 2024) curated by Vlad Strukov, featuring presentations by leading researchers as well as filmmakers, artists and activists, and funded by Columbia University. The conference will result in an edited volume.
  • ‘Alternative Narratives of Belonging, Resistance and Rebellion: Representations of Indigenous Muslim Minorities in Films’, international conference (Leeds, 2024), co-organised by Vlad Strukov, Prianka Singh and Leah Wang. Funded by the University of Leeds, the conference brings together researchers working on representations of Muslim minorities in film, including queer minorities. 
  • ‘ORIGEM’ lead by Thea Pitman and funded in 2019-20 by Ignite (Cultural Institute/University of Leeds), in 2022 by the GNCA (GCRF and Newton Consolidation Accounts) scheme, and in 2023-24 by the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies. In September 2022, the project was exhibited as part of the Bolivia International Digital Art Fair at mARTadero in Cochabamba. Until August 2024, the ORIGEM project was prominently on display at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, UEA, Norwich in the ‘Liquid Gender’ exhibition.
  • ‘Interstitial Geographies and LGBTQ+ Life of Ceuta and Melilla’ project lead Hendrik Kraetzschmar, Richard Cleminson and Andrew Delatolla. The project has been funded in part by the Ceutan Institute of Studies and the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies. As of 2024, the project has led to the production of a report and book chapter on the LGBTQ+ communities in Ceuta. Research on Melilla is ongoing.