International project to study COVID-19’s impact on the UK’s LGBTQ+ population announced.
Queer Pandemic: Resilience in Times of Crisis is a video-based oral history project to collect stories about the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in the UK in the era of COVID-19.
The project will explore connections between the current pandemic and previous crises related to the health and safety of LGBTQ+ people. These crises include (but are not limited to) HIV/Aids, violence, criminalisation, and restricted access to healthcare. These crises have shaped queer identities and this current crisis should be no different.
Queer Pandemic explores how queer identities and communities have been shaped and strengthened by individual and community responses to COVID-19 and previous crises. The project will use remote video technology in gathering these oral histories, which will become part of the Virtually Queer collection of Queer Britain, the national LGBTQ+ museum.
Queer Pandemic is an international collaboration between: Queer Britain; Goldsmiths, University of London; and Kent State University. The primary research and instructional team of Justin Bengry, Ph.D. (Goldsmiths) and Lauren Vachon, MFA (Kent State) is led by Molly Merryman, Ph.D. (Kent State and Queer Britain). Research project design is already underway, with a pilot study planned for June and July. Undergraduate and postgraduate students from Goldsmiths and Kent State will participate in collecting interviews. This initial pilot project will continue through December 2020.
“LGBTQ+ communities have to a large extent been shaped by tough times and have emerged stronger as a result. There are a wealth of stories in the country about how queer people have responded and been effected by the lockdown, and the museum want to hear these stories and understand how they relate to responses to earlier emergencies and this exciting partnership will help unlock that.”
Joseph Galliano, CEO & Co-Founder, Queer Britain.
"This exciting partnership between Queer Britain, Goldsmiths and Kent State introduces students to innovative queer history practice while recording and recovering LGBTQ+ resilience and community in the past and the present."
Dr Justin Bengry, Director, Centre for Queer History, Goldsmiths, University of London
"Kent State's partnership with Goldsmiths and Queer Britain establishes an innovative research team, ensuring that this important study will be professionally and creatively managed."
Dr. Molly Merryman, Director, Kent State University Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality.
Video: Goldsmiths Centre for Queer History chats with Dan Nouveau at Queer Britain about the Queer Pandemic oral history project
