Perverse Collections: Building Europe's Queer and Trans Archives

Lead Research Organisation: University of St Andrews
Department Name: Philos Anthrop and Film Studies

Abstract

'Perverse Collections' (PERCOL) asks: how can a critical and nuanced understanding of the evolution of Europe's LGBTQ+ archives be used by scholars, queer and trans community members, and GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) sector workers to forge sustainable strategies for protecting LGBTQ+ history, and in what ways might this have transformative potential for cultural heritage politics and policy more broadly? To this end, the project will map the growth of Europe's queer and trans archives, from the 1970s to the present; it will comparatively explore the workings of these collections, including their relations to forms of state support, the understandings of LGBTQ+ history they promote locally, nationally, and internationally, and the alternative models of archiving some embody. PERCOL will identify the implications of queer and trans collections for other subaltern archives, as well as the wider cultural heritage sector, in terms of the challenges they present to dominant historical and political narratives, the complex polyphonic community politics they can reveal, and their creative handling of ephemeral experiences. Working with an array of European cultural heritage institutions, as well as a broad cross-section of invested stakeholders, the project team will draw from the history of Europe's queer and trans archives to model innovative strategies for preserving and sustaining LGBTQ+ cultural heritage. The project is situated in a live political context: as homophobic and transphobic acts of violence and discrimination rise across Europe, fomented in some countries by the prejudicial rhetoric of right-wing political groups, the project will argue for the social, cultural and political value of archiving LGBTQ+ lives and experiences, and for the wider ethical significance of supporting and maintaining a transnational ecology of subaltern collections.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description Perverse Collections: Associate Partners 
Organisation Bishopsgate Institute
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution 'Perverse Collections' has 17 Associate Partners based in an array of countries. We will be working with these partners on organising events across the run of the project; we will also be spending time investigating their collections, practices and policies.
Collaborator Contribution A few of the partners have contributed in-kind support (use of space, small amounts of staff time, etc). Key events across the run of the project will be hosted by associate partners. Most significantly, representatives from these partners will attend as many of our events as they can across the 24 months of the project, providing talks and/or networking with other attendees.
Impact So far: our launch event was held at Bishopsgate Institute (June 2023); two workshops were held on consecutive days at EYE Filmmuseum and Sound and Vision (2 & 3 November 2023); a conference was held in Dundee on 1 & 2 February 2024, with the second day being hosted by V&A Dundee.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Perverse Collections: Associate Partners 
Organisation Cork LGBT Archive
Country Ireland 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution 'Perverse Collections' has 17 Associate Partners based in an array of countries. We will be working with these partners on organising events across the run of the project; we will also be spending time investigating their collections, practices and policies.
Collaborator Contribution A few of the partners have contributed in-kind support (use of space, small amounts of staff time, etc). Key events across the run of the project will be hosted by associate partners. Most significantly, representatives from these partners will attend as many of our events as they can across the 24 months of the project, providing talks and/or networking with other attendees.
Impact So far: our launch event was held at Bishopsgate Institute (June 2023); two workshops were held on consecutive days at EYE Filmmuseum and Sound and Vision (2 & 3 November 2023); a conference was held in Dundee on 1 & 2 February 2024, with the second day being hosted by V&A Dundee.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Perverse Collections: Associate Partners 
Organisation Glasgow Women's Library
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution 'Perverse Collections' has 17 Associate Partners based in an array of countries. We will be working with these partners on organising events across the run of the project; we will also be spending time investigating their collections, practices and policies.
Collaborator Contribution A few of the partners have contributed in-kind support (use of space, small amounts of staff time, etc). Key events across the run of the project will be hosted by associate partners. Most significantly, representatives from these partners will attend as many of our events as they can across the 24 months of the project, providing talks and/or networking with other attendees.
Impact So far: our launch event was held at Bishopsgate Institute (June 2023); two workshops were held on consecutive days at EYE Filmmuseum and Sound and Vision (2 & 3 November 2023); a conference was held in Dundee on 1 & 2 February 2024, with the second day being hosted by V&A Dundee.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Perverse Collections: Associate Partners 
Organisation Het Nieuwe Instituut
Country Netherlands 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution 'Perverse Collections' has 17 Associate Partners based in an array of countries. We will be working with these partners on organising events across the run of the project; we will also be spending time investigating their collections, practices and policies.
Collaborator Contribution A few of the partners have contributed in-kind support (use of space, small amounts of staff time, etc). Key events across the run of the project will be hosted by associate partners. Most significantly, representatives from these partners will attend as many of our events as they can across the 24 months of the project, providing talks and/or networking with other attendees.
Impact So far: our launch event was held at Bishopsgate Institute (June 2023); two workshops were held on consecutive days at EYE Filmmuseum and Sound and Vision (2 & 3 November 2023); a conference was held in Dundee on 1 & 2 February 2024, with the second day being hosted by V&A Dundee.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Perverse Collections: Associate Partners 
Organisation Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
Country Netherlands 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution 'Perverse Collections' has 17 Associate Partners based in an array of countries. We will be working with these partners on organising events across the run of the project; we will also be spending time investigating their collections, practices and policies.
Collaborator Contribution A few of the partners have contributed in-kind support (use of space, small amounts of staff time, etc). Key events across the run of the project will be hosted by associate partners. Most significantly, representatives from these partners will attend as many of our events as they can across the 24 months of the project, providing talks and/or networking with other attendees.
Impact So far: our launch event was held at Bishopsgate Institute (June 2023); two workshops were held on consecutive days at EYE Filmmuseum and Sound and Vision (2 & 3 November 2023); a conference was held in Dundee on 1 & 2 February 2024, with the second day being hosted by V&A Dundee.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Perverse Collections: Associate Partners 
Organisation Victoria and Albert Museum Dundee
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution 'Perverse Collections' has 17 Associate Partners based in an array of countries. We will be working with these partners on organising events across the run of the project; we will also be spending time investigating their collections, practices and policies.
Collaborator Contribution A few of the partners have contributed in-kind support (use of space, small amounts of staff time, etc). Key events across the run of the project will be hosted by associate partners. Most significantly, representatives from these partners will attend as many of our events as they can across the 24 months of the project, providing talks and/or networking with other attendees.
Impact So far: our launch event was held at Bishopsgate Institute (June 2023); two workshops were held on consecutive days at EYE Filmmuseum and Sound and Vision (2 & 3 November 2023); a conference was held in Dundee on 1 & 2 February 2024, with the second day being hosted by V&A Dundee.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Perverse Collections: Spanish and Dutch teams 
Organisation Maastricht University (UM)
Country Netherlands 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution 'Perverse Collections' is a pan-European project that involves partners in the UK, Spain, and the Netherlands. The full project was submitted to the JPICH funding call. The Spanish portion of the project is funded by the AEI; the Netherlands portion by NWO; and the UK portion by the AHRC. (I have provided the funding sums these two teams are working with under the 'partners' information). The Dutch team consists of Eliza Steinbock (PI), Sandro Weilenmann (post-doc) and Layan Nijem (student assistant). The Spanish team consists of Juan Antonio Suarez (PI) and Alberto Berzosa (postdoc). All decisions about the project are made collaboratively; we are all attending each other's events across the 24 months of the project.
Collaborator Contribution Each national team is organising one conference and one workshop across the run of the project. All three will also be producing publications (journal articles, edited collections, etc). The funding bid to JPICH was co-authored.
Impact So far, the Dutch team have organised two connected workshops which were held on 2 & 3 November 2023. These workshops had the title 'Lively Metaphors in Preservation Practices'. Day one was held at EYE Amsterdam, day two at Sound and Vision in The Hague (both organisations are associate partners of the project). The events were attended by around 50 people - a mixture of academics, artists, and people working in the cultural heritage sector. The collaboration, like the project, is multi-disciplinary, making contributions to museum and heritage studies, queer and trans studies, art history, and film studies.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Perverse Collections: Spanish and Dutch teams 
Organisation University of Murcia, Spain
Country Spain 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution 'Perverse Collections' is a pan-European project that involves partners in the UK, Spain, and the Netherlands. The full project was submitted to the JPICH funding call. The Spanish portion of the project is funded by the AEI; the Netherlands portion by NWO; and the UK portion by the AHRC. (I have provided the funding sums these two teams are working with under the 'partners' information). The Dutch team consists of Eliza Steinbock (PI), Sandro Weilenmann (post-doc) and Layan Nijem (student assistant). The Spanish team consists of Juan Antonio Suarez (PI) and Alberto Berzosa (postdoc). All decisions about the project are made collaboratively; we are all attending each other's events across the 24 months of the project.
Collaborator Contribution Each national team is organising one conference and one workshop across the run of the project. All three will also be producing publications (journal articles, edited collections, etc). The funding bid to JPICH was co-authored.
Impact So far, the Dutch team have organised two connected workshops which were held on 2 & 3 November 2023. These workshops had the title 'Lively Metaphors in Preservation Practices'. Day one was held at EYE Amsterdam, day two at Sound and Vision in The Hague (both organisations are associate partners of the project). The events were attended by around 50 people - a mixture of academics, artists, and people working in the cultural heritage sector. The collaboration, like the project, is multi-disciplinary, making contributions to museum and heritage studies, queer and trans studies, art history, and film studies.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Hands Off: LGBTQ+ Cultural Heritage and Ethical Stewardship 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Across two days (1 & 2 February 2024), around 120 people attended a conference entitled 'Hands Off'. The event was staged at Dundee Contemporary Arts (day 1) and V&A Dundee (day 2). (V&A Dundee are one of the project's associate partners.) The aim of the event was to explore together the complicated topic of who is responsible for safeguarding LGBTQ+ cultural heritage for posterity. If a community hands over a collection of material to a larger institution for safekeeping, how is that relationship negotiated?

The conference was built around a series of panel discussions between archivists, historians, artists and theorists. Speakers were invited from countries including France, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, and Ireland. Feedback on the event from attendees highlighted the extent to which it changed people's understandings of the field: relationships between institutions and community groups need to be collaboratively worked on; an intersectional politics must lie at the heart of all LGBTQ+ archiving.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Project launch event 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact 50 people attended a launch event for the 'Perverse Collections' project in June 2023. This was held at Bishopsgate Institute in London (one of our partner organisations). The event took the form of a roundtable with three invited speakers from across Europe and Scandinavia: Julian Isenia from the Black Queer Archives in the Netherlands; Tone Hellesund from the Skeivt Arkiv in Norway; and Elahe Haschemi Yekani, a scholar from Humboldt University in Berlin (and a member of the advisory committee for the project). All three speakers began to unpack the politics of building LGBTQ+ archives and collections, setting the stage for forthcoming events and activities in the Perverse Collections schedule.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Sex and Death: Lively Metaphors in Preservation Practices 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 'Sex and Death: Lively Metaphors in Preservation Practice' was a two-day event organised by the Dutch team of 'Perverse Collections'. (The UK PI was involved in discussions about the event content; he was also present throughout the event, and chaired a session on the second day.) Around 60 people attended the event across the two days, with some overlap in attendees between the two sessions. The first day, held at EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, primarily involved individuals responsible for queer and trans archives talking about their collections and their practices, from large organisations such as IHLIA LGBTI Heritage to more grassroots organisations such as El Punt. The second day mainly involved artists and theorists discussing their own projects, and how these involved LGBTQ+ archives. As the first major event organised by 'Perverse Collections', the workshops were intended to (a) enable project partners and other invested parties to network and socialise, and (b) to begin to explore the sticky metaphors, affects, and categories that gather around these collections.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023