Michaelmas 2026 Seminar Series
Convenors: Professor Sarah Knott, Professor Matt Cook and Dr. Mori Reithmayr
Administrator: Katie Burke
WEEK 1 - Thursday 15th October - 11.45am-1pm
Welcome Back: What did we do last summer?
With Prof. Jonathan Bell, Prof. Anthea Butler, Prof. Gareth Evans, Dr. Aisha Djelid, and Smriti Verma.
Moderator: Prof. Sarah Knott.
Venue: 45 St. Giles Seminar Room, St. John’s College* (enter from street)
WEEK 2 - Thursday 22nd October - 11.45am-1pm
‘Inventing the “Working Family” in the Late Twentieth Century United States’
Prof. Kirsten Swinth (Fordham University)
Venue: North Lecture Room, St. John’s College
WEEK 3 - Thursday 29th October - 11.45am-1pm
Prof. Dennis Altman (La Trobe University), ‘The growing global polarisation around queer rights’
Prof. David Nash (Oxford Brookes University), ‘The Gay News Case and the Blasphemy of Homosexuality’ Queer histories of the present
Venue: North Lecture Room, St. John’s College
WEEK 4 - Thursday 5th November - 11.45am-1pm
Lightning Round: Research Puzzles
Led by Dr. Kamil Karczewski, Dr. Mori Reithmayr, Prof. Lyndal Roper, Dr. Kari Silvola, and Dr. Aline Vogt.
Venue: North Lecture Room, St. John’s College
WEEK 5 - Thursday 12th November - 11.45am-1pm
‘The Chevalière d’Eon (1728-1810): Trans Pasts, Trans Futures’
Prof. Jonathan Conlin (University of Southampton) in conversation with Dr. Clovis Maillet.
Venue: North Lecture Room, St. John’s College
WEEK 6 - Thursday 19th November - 11.45am-1pm
Activisms
Dr. Grace Heaton, ‘Identifying and Labeling Grassroots Activism’
Dr. Saima Nasar (University of Bristol), ‘”We are here, but are we queer?” Histories of anti-racist queer activism in postwar Britain’
Venue: 21 St. Giles Seminar Room, St. John’s College (enter from Kendrew Quad)
WEEK 7 - Thursday 26th November - 11.45am-1pm
Collaboration with TORCH’s Race and Resistance Research Hub
Prof. Basile Ndjio (University of Douala)
Venue: North Lecture Room, St. John’s College
WEEK 8 - Thursday 3rd December - 11.45am-1pm
Sex and Silence Before Gay Liberation: new histories of Northern Ireland and Belgium
Prof. Tom Hulme (Queen’s University Belfast), ‘Say Nothing? The Paradoxical Possibilities of Queerness in Belfast’
Dr. Wannes Dupont (University of Edinburgh), ‘Unwilling to Know: Homosexuality at the Crossroads of Europe’
Venue: 15 St. Giles Seminar Room, St. John’s College* (enter from street)
* Venue is not wheelchair accessible. Please contact Katie Burke at wgq@history.ox.ac.uk to arrange alternative access
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