University of Galway Queer Studies Symposium

An academic Queer Studies Symposium being held at the University of Galway to coincide with Galway Pride Week and showcase LGBTQ+ research.
About this Event

About the Symposium

We're delighted to announce that we will be hosting a Queer Studies Symposium at the University of Galway on August 4th to coincide with Galway Pride Week. This in-person event is free and open to all to attend. A variety of panels will be held throughout the day, covering a broad range of topics from LGBTQ+ history, to economics; from queer and trans healthcare, to literature. Our keynote panel will see four LGBTQ+ activists speak on their experiences of queer activism in Ireland. This event is supported by the School of History and Philosophy, University of Galway. Our full programme is available below.

Symposium Programme

Panel 1A: Queer Knowledge is Queer Power – the role of education and institutions in LGBTQ+ activism.

Venue: HBB-G001 Seminar Room

Chair: David Comer

Declan Coogan (he/him) – University of Galway

Exploring LGBTQ+ Lives at University of Galway – Universities as spaces for advancing LGBTQ + rights?

Mary Antoinette Ambrose (she/her) – Ulster University

Exploring Teacher Self-Efficacy to Support Transgender Students in Irish Secondary Schools: A Reflexive Thematic Analysis Using Vignettes.

Benjamin Foley (he/him) – Dublin City University

I’m not the one who should be shamed: self-taught LGBTQ+ sex education in the post-digital age.

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Panel 1B: We’re Here, We’re Queer, We Always Have Been – LGBTQ+ history in Ireland and abroad.

Venue: HBB-B001 Small Lecture Theatre

Chair: Chris Noone

Hana Laine Flamm (she/her) – Trinity College Dublin/Independent

A Future Worth Making, As Seen on the Dance Floor.

Nazife Kosukoğlu (she/her) – University of Galway

The Possibilities and Impossibilities of Queering Ottoman Legal Studies.

Eden Jane Skehan (she/her) – University College Dublin

‘One Layer Under’: Alga Campbell, Irishness, and Border Politics in Trans Organising during the Long 1970s.

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Panel 2A: Queer Economics and Labour.

Venue: HBB-G001 Seminar Room

Chair: Declan Coogan

Antonio Vega Rodriguez (he/him) – Technological University Dublin

Pride and prejudice: Pro-social preferences, charitable donations, and the LGBTQ+ community.

Nanette Ashby (she/her) – Radboud University (Netherlands)

The Challenges of Archiving and Curating Sex Work: Breaking Barriers and regaining agency by Curating with Care.

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Panel 2B: Creating Spaces; Challenging Norms.

Venue: HBB-B001 Small Lecture Theatre

Chair: Kevin O’Sullivan

Rachel Bayer (she/her) – University College Dublin

Beyond Landscapes of Allonormativity?: Imagining and Envisioning Ace Liveabilities in Ireland.

Pritha K. (they/them) – Dublin City University

Role of artistic research practices in embodying and expressing lived experience through queer neurodivergent perspectives.

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Panel 3: Workshop.

Venue: HBB-G019 Large Lecture Theatre

Chair: Daniel Gallen

Trans Healthcare Action

Morr O’Malley (they/them) & Ryan Biskupović-Goulding (they/them)

Kindred: Building Care By and For Trans People.

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Panel 4A: Out and About – LGBTQ+ migrants and diasporic communities.

Venue: HBB-G001 Seminar Room

Chair: John Gilmore

Aoileann Ní Mhurchú (she/her) – University College London (UK)

Reclaiming Belonging: The Queering of Diasporic Music and Cultural Spaces.

Daniel Gallen (he/they) – University of Galway

“There was nothing we could do about being gay, but there was something we could do about being Irish”: LGBTQ+ migrants and Irish identity in London, 1967-1993.

Pepe Sánchez-Molero (they/them) – Dublin City University

"People are my space”. Ephemeral placemaking by trans and queer adults with migrant backgrounds in Köln/Cologne and Baile Átha Cliath/Dublin.

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Panel 4B: Rocking the Boat – the LGBTQ+ experience in Northern Ireland.

Venue: HBB-B001 Small Lecture Theatre

Chair: Ryan Biskupović-Goulding

Philip Rivers (he/him) – Ulster University

Transgender Visibility in Northern Ireland: Past and Present.

Niall Herron (he/him) – Queen’s University Belfast

Queer Chronotopes: Spatial Conflict and Northern Irish Pride Parades.

Cormac Begley (he/him) – Queen’s University Belfast

Trans young adults' experiences of psychosocial support for gender-related distress in Northern Ireland: An IPA study.

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Panel 5A: Reading Between the Lines – representations of the LGBTQ+ experience in literature and poetry.

Venue: HBB-G001 Seminar Room

Chair: Kevin O’Sullivan

Madeline Stephens (she/her) – University of Galway

Silence: Censorship and Sacraments in John Broderick's The Trial of Father Dillingham.

Sarah Fitzgerald (she/her) – University College Cork

‘No mourners, no funerals’: queerness and chosen family in contemporary YA fantasy.

Emer Lyons (they/she) – University of Galway

Something Else: a poetics of shame.

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Panel 5B: Studying Queer Health – Challenging Norms in Data Collection, Evidence Making, and Care.

Venue: HBB-B001 Small Lecture Theatre

Chair: Declan Coogan

John Gilmore (pronouns) – University College Dublin

Beyond Identity: Strengthening Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Data to Address Health Inequalities.

David Comer (he/him) – University of Galway

Critical Discourse Analysis Of Research On National HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Programmes Among Gay, Bisexual, And Other Men Who Have Sex With Men.

Chris Noone (he/him) – University of Galway

Weaponised Uncertainty, Chronopolitics and Strategic Ignorance: Cis-exceptionalism in the application of Evidence-Based Medicine to Gender Affirming Care.

Ryan Biskupović-Goulding (they/them) – University College Cork

Diversifying Trans Healthcare: Recognising and caring for trans and gender diverse people across the lifespan.

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KEYNOTE PANEL: LGBTQ+ Activism in Ireland – Reflections on a Life of Activism.

Venue: HBB-G019 Large Lecture Theatre

Chair: Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley

Orla Egan (she/her), Micheál Kerrigan (he/him), Sara Phillips (she/her), Nuala Ward (she/her).

2015 was a significant year in the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights in Ireland. That year saw the passage of the Thirty-fourth Amendment to Bunreacht na hÉireann, allowing for the provision of same-sex marriage under the Marriage Act (2015), and the implementation of the Gender Recognition Act (2015), allowing Irish citizens to change their legal name and gender.

These events are rightly viewed as major victories for the LGBTQ+ community, but they did not spring up from nothing. Decades of activism and advocacy from individuals and organisations helped steer Ireland from a country which criminalised male homosexuality until 1993, permitted discrimination in matters of employment on the basis of sexual orientation until 1998, and banned gay and bisexual men entirely from donating blood until 2017.

This panel brings together four LGBTQ+ activists with a longstanding history of fighting for trans and queer rights in Ireland to speak about their experiences with activism, the changes they have witnessed and contributed to over the decades, and how we can continue the fight for true equality and protection from harm. It invites participants to consider the history of LGBTQ+ activism and what lessons might be learned from the past in how to help shape the future.

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Agenda

🕑: 09:00 AM - 09:30 AM
Registration
🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:45 AM
Panel Session 1

Info: Panel 1A: Queer Knowledge is Queer Power – the role of education and institutions in LGBTQ+ activism / Panel 1B: We’re Here, We’re Queer, We Always Have Been – LGBTQ+ history in Ireland and abroad

🕑: 10:45 AM - 11:00 AM
Tea/coffee break
🕑: 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM
Panel Session 2

Info: Panel 2A: Queer Economics and Labour / Panel 2B: Creating Spaces; Challenging Norms

🕑: 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
Panel Session 3

Info: Panel 3: Special Workshop by Trans Healthcare Action

🕑: 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Lunch
🕑: 02:00 PM - 03:15 PM
Panel Session 4

Info: Panel 4A: Out and About – LGBTQ+ migrants and diasporic communities / Panel 4B: Rocking the Boat – the LGBTQ+ experience in Northern Ireland

🕑: 03:15 PM - 03:30 PM
Tea/coffee break
🕑: 03:30 PM - 04:45 PM
Panel Session 5

Info: Panel 5A: Reading Between the Lines – representations of the LGBTQ+ experience in literature and poetry / Panel 5B: Studying Queer Health – Challenging Norms in Data Collection, Evidence Making, and Care

🕑: 04:45 PM - 05:45 PM
Keynote Panel: LGBTQ+ Activism in Ireland – Reflections on a Life of Activism

Info: Orla Egan (she/her), Michéal Kerrigan (he/him), Sara Phillips (she/her), Nuala Ward (she/her).

🕑: 05:45 PM - 06:00 PM
Closing remarks