International Symposium: Contemporary Sexualities and Neoliberal Cultures

International Symposium

Contemporary Sexualities and Neoliberal Cultures

18 March 2026

Manchester Metropolitan University

Free entry

Organised by Contemporary Intimacies, Sexualities and Genders (CISG), School of Sociology and Criminology, Manchester Met.

Part 1 – Sexualities in Neoliberal Cultures: Hegemonies and Contestations

Wed. 18.03. 2026, 1pm-5.30pm

Venue: Geoffrey Manton Building, GM 337 (capacity 60)

Part 2 – Sexualities in Neoliberal Culture: Ageing and Old Age in LGBTQ+ Populations

Wed. 18.03. 2026, 6pm-8pm

Venue: Business School, BS G.33 - Lecture Theatre 4 (N Atrium) (capacity 122)

Information

This one-day symposium addresses key questions regarding the interconnection of contemporary sexualities with neoliberal cultures.

Many critical theorists have argued that neoliberalism has profoundly transformed sexual identities and subjectivities, relational and sexual cultures and ethics, regimes of citizenship, and forms of activism. There is a widely shared common sense that neoliberalism itself has been changing and has articulated itself in different ways, depending on the geo-political context. This has also had an impact on how neoliberal modes of governance impacted on specific groups, with variable effects on their living conditions and the formation of class-based, gendered, sexual, racialized or age-related subjectivities.

The event will showcase work undertaken by researchers affiliated with the Research Group Contemporary Intimacies, Sexualities and Genders (CISG) at Manchester Met, alongside high profile keynote speakers (Dr Patricio Simonetto, University of Leeds, UK and Dr Ana Cristina Santos, University of Coimbra, Portugal),plus the screening of prize-winning documentary OUTLASTING: Living Archives of Older Queers (directed by Ana Cristina Santos and Nuno Barbosa)

The topics addressed include but are not limited to: LGBTQI+ sexualities, LGBTQI+ older population in Southern Europe, Monogamy and Non-monogamy, and the intersection of sexualities with class.

Programme

Part 1 – Sexualities in Neoliberal Cultures: Hegemonies and Contestations

Wed. 18.03. 2026, 1pm-5.30pm

Venue: Geoffrey Manton Building, GM 337 (capacity 60)

1.00-1.10pm: Welcome Note

1.10-2.30pm: Current Research into Sexualities and Neoliberal (CISG Panel)

1.10-1.30pm: Dr Alicia Denby (CISG/MMU): ‘Single Positivity in a Neoliberal Context’

1.30-1.50pm: Dr Chris Waugh (CISG/MMU): ‘Towards a Social Harms Understanding of ‘Sex-for-Rent’’

1.50-2.10pm: Dr Antonio Cerdeira Pilão and Prof Christian Klesse (both CISG/MMU): Non-Monogamies and Multi-Parenting under Neoliberalism: Debates on Class and Gender

2.10-2.30: Discussion

2.30-3.00pm: Coffee Break and Snack

3.00-4.00pm: Sexualities, Countercultures and Class in Postwar Britain: Neoliberal Anticipations and Utopian Possibilities – A Conversation with Dr David Wilkinson (moderation Dr Antonio Cerdeira Pilão and Prof Christian Klesse)

4.00-4.30pm: Coffee Break

4.30pm-5.30pm - Keynote Lecture 1: Dr Patricio Simonetto (School of Sociology and Social Policy, Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, Leeds University, UK)

Title: LGBT+ Archival Activism, Ageing and Kinship in Neoliberal Times

Abstract: Latin America is likely the region with the largest number of LGBT+ community archives in the world (at least 55 active projects) (Fraccaroli & Simonetto, 2025). In the aftermath of authoritarian dictatorships, along with fighting to redefine the sexual margins of the emerging citizenship, activists invested time in documenting and preserving their history, helping them in the 21st century to challenge cis-heteronormative narratives of the past and pushing the limits of democracy.

Mainstream explanations of this global turn to archiving have usually been framed as the expression of the loss of the agency of 1960s/1970s political movements and the commodification of memory politics in neoliberal times. In this presentation, I turn to Latin America and particularly Argentina, the country in the region with the largest LGBT+ community Archives, I explore archival activism in the context of a new experience with ageing: those who came out and became activists at the end of the military dictatorship in Argentina (1980s) are ageing, facing new questions about how the exclusions they lived with can be remembered, who will value their material legacies, and how their memories will be passed to the new generations. In a context of extreme radicalisation of the neoliberal model that demonises memory policies, LGBT+ activism and the life of elderly communities in particular, I propose moving from a perspective focused on nostalgia to analyse the ways in which archival activists are producing new infrastructures of memory transmission and care that go beyond heterosexual family structures and society that dooms their material legacies of this communities as unvaluable inheritance.

Drawing on archival research, 25 ethnographic interviews and archival fieldwork, I will make the case for understanding community archiving as queer/trans kinmaking practice, in which archives open questions about the value of things and the care of others in and beyond life. I coined the term' archival kinship' to identify the ways in which these acts of passing documents and narratives people co-constitute one another through shared objects, documents, and memories. Transmission that disrupts the traditional heterosexual circuits of memory transmission.

Part 2 – Sexualities in Neoliberal Culture: Ageing and Old Age in LGBTQ+ Populations

Wed. 18.03. 2026, 6pm-8pm

Venue: Business School, BS G.33 - Lecture Theatre 4 (N Atrium) (capacity 122)

6.00pm-7.00pm - Keynote Lecture 2: Dr Ana Cristina Santos (CES – Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra Portugal)

Title: Bad for Business, Dangerous for Norms: Too Old, Too Queer, Too Much?

Abstract: In recent years, ageing has become a priority in government and research agendas. There is increasing concern about the impact of ageing on access to healthcare and welfare, with related calls for more state-based support to pregnancy and parenting as a long-term counter-measure in face of the foreseeable financial burden with pensions and end of life care. The way in which policy-makers and other stakeholders address ageing is riveting for social sciences and beyond, as it exposes a variety of contemporary paradoxes and contractions. These contradictions are embedded in structures of power stemming from sexism, racism, classism, ableism, amongst others, all wrapped in the type of prejudice that is the cornerstone of my work lately: ageism.

This paper starts with an overview of the dominant sociocultural narrative that renders ageing acceptable, creating a clash between those who age well and those who do not. This dominant narrative on ageing is anchored in social norms that, in turn, are both fed and feed neoliberalism. I then suggest the notion of seniornormativity (Santos, 2026) to describe a process through which some aspects of ageing are valued, whilst others are rendered unacceptable under public eyes. Based on over 100 narrative interviews LGBTQI+ people over 60 years old in different countries across Europe in ERC funded project TRACE – Tracing Queer Citizenship Over Time, the impacts of seniornormativity will be explored. By zooming in the experiences of older people who have been excluded from the canon of seniornormativity, the last section of the paper contains a broader reflexion about the ways in which the absence or limitations of social policies, social awareness and activism suitable for older LGBTQI+ people contribute to the perpetuation of ageism. Deprived from (the right to) representation and recognition, older people who do not comply with the standards attached to seniornormativity often lack a sense of belonging that would, otherwise, enable a sense of pride. By the end of the talk, I offer examples of queer joy, pride and resistance in old age as tools against neoliberal social determinants.

7.00pm-8.00pm – Film Screening; OUTLASTING: Living Archives of Older Queers (56' minutes).

Synopsis of the movie:

Outlasting – Living Archives of Older Queers» by Ana Cristina Santos & Nuno Barbosa

Produced within the framework of Project TRACE – Tracing Queer Citizenship Over Time, (2025, 56') brings together the life stories of older LGBTQI+ people in Southern Europe, offering a powerful reflection on ageing, memory, resistance, and queer citizenship. Drawing on lived experiences from Portugal, Italy, Greece, Malta, and Slovenia, the film presents embodied memories as a living archive of sexual and gender diversity. The film’s title — Outlasting — evokes the many meanings of endurance, persistence, and remaining. As the documentary makes clear, older LGBTQI+ people are those who persisted against all odds. When confronted with histories of stigma, silence, and exclusion, ageing queer bodies emerge as powerful reminders of the right to exist unashamed and unapologetic. The film premiered at the Queer Porto International Film Festival and received the Best LGBTQ+ Film Award at the Your Way Film Festival (Malta) and at AIMAFF – Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival (Greece). In Portugal, it was awarded Film of the Year by the independent LGBTQI+ media outlet dezanove. The movie also features as Official Special Selection in Colors of Love Film Festival (India) and Doc Only Festival (Denmark). Outlasting – Living Archives of Older Queers was directed by Ana Cristina Santos and Nuno Barbosa and produced within Project TRACE – Tracing Queer Citizenship Over Time: Ageing, ageism and age-related LGBTI+ politics in Europe, funded by the European Research Council (ERC-2021-COG, TRACE,101044915).

Keynote Speakers' Bios:

Ana-Cristina Santos is a renowned Sociologist expert in gender and sexuality studies in Southern Europe. Following several years as a researcher in Birkbeck, University of London, Dr Santos holds a permanent position as Senior Principal Researcher with Habilitation in Human Rights at the Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra, where she is Co-Director of the Feminist Studies Doctoral Programme and Chair in Democracy, Justice and Human Rights. Before that, she was founder and co-Director of the International PhD Programme Human rights in Contemporary Societies for 10 years, as well as founder of the CES Sexuality Research Group. After being awarded 2 major grants by the European Research Council (2013, 2022), Dr Santos leads TRACE project centred on LGBTQI+ ageing. Elected member of the Executive Committee of the European Sociological Association now in her second mandate, she works in Communication, International Relations and Postgraduate Studies, and chairs the Public Sociology, Diversity and Sustainability Committee. Most recent books include: The SAGE Handbook of Global Sexualities (2020); The Tenacity of the Couple Norm (UCL Press, 2020); LGBTQ+ Intimacies in Southern Europe: Citizenship, Care and Choice (Palgrave, 2023); and the edited collection A Research Agenda for Queer Aging (Edward Elgar Pub, forthcoming 2026). Contacts: [email protected] BlueSky: @anacristinasantos.bsky.social Pronouns: she/ her

Patricio Simonetto is an Associate Professor in Gender and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. His research focuses on the queer histories and memories of Latin America. He is the author of A Body of One’s Own: A Trans History of Argentina (University of Texas Press) and Money is Not Everything. The Purchase and Sale of Sex in Argentina in the Twentieth Century (The University of North Carolina). He has been awarded the Sylvia Rivera Award for the best book in transgender studies (2025), the Best Book in Social Science from the Southern Cone Section (2025), and the Carlos Monsivais Prize (2021), both from the Latin American Studies Association.

David Wilkinson is Senior Lecturer in English at Manchester Metropolitan University. A member of the Subcultures Network and Chair of the Raymond Williams Society, his research explores the contemporary cultural and political significance of postwar British subcultures.

Other Speakers' Bios:

Alica Denby is an early career researcher and Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she specialises in singlehood, contemporary intimacies and technological transformations of dating.

Christian Klesse is Professor of the Sociology of Contemporary Intimacies at Manchester Metropolitan University. His research interests lie in the fields of gender and sexual politics, consensual non-monogamy and polyamory, transnational LGBTQIA+ activism, bisexuality, and queer diaspora studies.

Antonio Cerdeira Pilão is a UKRI MSCA fellow in the Sociology Department at Manchester Metropolitan University. He holds a PhD from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and coordinates the research group Non-monogamous Politics, Affections, and Sexualities (Não-mono, CNPq, Brazil).

Chris Waugh is a Lecturer in Sociology & Criminology, specialising in men and masculinities, affect, social harms and gendered violence in housing, heavy metal subcultures, and gender and sexuality in video games.

Organised by Dr Antonio Cerdeira Pilão and Prof Christian Klesse on behalf of CISG

Queries:

Antonio Cerdeira Pilão [email protected]

Christian Klesse [email protected]

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Arts & Humanities Research & Innovation