Long Live Queer Nightlife: In Conversation with Amin Ghaziani

MB417, Main Building, Aston University

From 2006 to 2016, the number of LGBTQ nighttime venues in London, a global capital of finance and culture, declined by 58%, falling in number from 125 to only 53 remaining venues. An audit by the mayor’s office showed that this closure rate compares with 44% of all nightclubs and 25% of all pubs. Thus, while all nighttime venues are struggling, the impact on queer spaces is more dire.

In Long Live Queer Nightlife (Princeton University Press, 2024), Professor Amin Ghaziani argues that bar closures disrupted the field nightlife and consequently encouraged the visibility of other forms of fellowship. The idea of a “disruption” is shared among organisational, social movement, and cultural sociologists. It describes an unsettled moment of time, either anticipated or unexpected, that alters our routines and the ideas we take for granted. In these moments of disruption, new possibilities arise for how to put the pieces back together. To see how this happens, Ghaziani asks not only why gay bars are closing, as others have, but also how people are responding. How is nightlife changing? How is it persisting? Where do new joys await?

Professor Ghaziani will discuss his work in conversation with Dr Katy Pilcher, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Policy at Aston University. The event will be chaired by Professor Mark McCormack, Professor of Sociology and Policy at Aston University.

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Host or Publisher Sociology and Policy at Aston University