Queer Lit

How do you get from wild theory all the way to wild swimming? By taking a deep dive with Prof Jack Halberstam (Columbia University) of course! Jack takes us where the wild things crawl and on the way, we discuss masculinities, the creative powers of failure, our difficult relationships to non-human animals, nudity and queer bodies, queerness, colonialism and capitalism, and, naturally, our favouri...

In this episode, Prof Chris Mounsey (University of Winchester) takes us on a wild ride: from meeting French philosophers as an undergrad, to the other day when construction workers gave him admiring verbal feedback for his (awesome) tattoos. And guess what, both of these encounters have to do with queerness and disability, or variability – the term Chris prefers. We talk about everything from pass...

Dr Elizabeth Reed (University of Southampton) is a cultural sociologist doing exciting research on bi-erasure, media representation and queer life-building. In this episode, Lizzie explains why bi relationships can be so difficult to describe, where we might need new language and where we might not, what and who queer families identify with and (most importantly) what soup dragons have to do with...

A delightful episode with Mara Gold (St Hilda’s College, Oxford), aka the Sapphic Scholar, who talks to me about Sappho (duh…), homosociality, queer college life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, lesbian love letters and surprise pubic hair in the queer archives. Mara is a historian, knows her way around Ancient Greece and Egypt, she works on and in museums, and get this: she has even wor...

In this episode, Dr Daniella Gáti (Brandeis University) explains why the internet is queer, how gaming and the form of the vignette relate to queerness and why we should (or should not) watch Queer Eye. If you're intrigued by the notion of queerness as a a 'blob', give this a listen. Scholars mentioned in this episode: Whitney Pow Bo Ruberg Lee Edelman Jack Halberstam Sara Ahmed (“What’s the Use”,...

Prof Susan Lanser (Brandeis University) joins me for this one – what an honour! Sue is one of the architects of narratology and has conducted groundbreaking research on queer women, lesbians and the Sapphic (among 500 other things and while being completely humble, charming and wonderful). In this episode, she provides insights on queerness in history, literature, culture and narrative form. She a...

Dr Olu Jenzen (University of Brighton) joins me for this episode on queer screens: from the silver screen, to the small screen to the smartphone screen. We talk about queer film and series, visual activism, digital queer spaces and, guess what, we even talk about queer teeth. Olu does incredible work for and with young trans people, researches their use of social media and also shares her insights...

I get to chat with LaVelle Ridley (University of Michigan) about her doctoral research on black trans life narratives in this one and I must say, she’s a tonic. From important observations on the role of storytelling in political and community activism to the deeply personal process of healing that appropriate representation can initiate, LaVelle covers it all. She’s a scholar, an activist, a pisc...

Dr Alberto Fernández Carbajal (University of Roehampton) tells me all about their insightful book Queer Muslim Diasporas in Contemporary Literature and Film (2019) in this episode. We cover their favourite reads and learn what a Muslim perspective can teach us about queerness. This kind of research is all about changing perspectives and fostering understanding, so I do hope you will be understandi...

In this episode, Diana Souhami explains how Modernism was fundamentally shaped by lesbians* and queer people. We talk about how Sylvia Beach published Joyce’s "Ulysses" when no publisher would touch it, how Bryher financed penniless artists who then became the crème de la crème of Modernism, how H.D. arguably wrote better imagist poetry than Pound, and which lesbian love affairs resulted in the mo...

In this episode, I am talking to Ashley Thornton (Brighton University) about epicene pronouns and gender-inclusive language. Ashley is a corpus linguist working on singular they in English, Spanish and Russian and has some insights on the history of gender-neutral pronouns as well. The scholars (and Twitter accounts) referenced in this episode are: Olu Jenzen @DrOluJenzen Charlotte Stormbom Laura...

In this episode, Dr Kit Heyam (Northumbria University) shares wonderful tidbits from trans and non-binary histories, talks about their book on queer king Edward II and is generally delightful and clever. Kit also talks about how they approach queering history, the intersections of literary studies and historical research and their favourite contemporary queer reads, such as "The Lauras" by Sara Ta...