CRSN/ICS online seminar series: ‘Back To a Time Before I Had Form’: Ancient Origin Myth(s) of Queerness

This year’s CRSN/ICS online seminar series is organised by the Queer and the Classical collective. All events (listed below) will take place 4:30PM – 6:00PM BST and require advance registration. The programme with all the registration links is available on their website.

‘Back To a Time Before I Had Form’: Ancient Origin Myth(s) of Queerness

Classics as a discipline has historically positioned itself as a search for origins, drawing tenuous and often fictional connections between ancient cultures and modern ‘Western civilisation’. Origin stories of gender and sexuality have also contributed to this narrative: the classical past has played an integral part in forming categories and images of sexual difference and desire. Scholars and activists have then often turned to Graeco-Roman antiquity in order to advocate for the legal rights and social legitimation for LGBTQ+ identities. While ancient evidence of queer desire has been an important tool for combatting queerphobia, this attempt at legitimizing contemporary queerness through ‘the classical’ has also reinforced dangerous and exclusionary ideologies, facilitating strategies of pinkwashing, homonationalism, and the erasure of intersectional identities. What does it mean to look for the origin of queerness in the ancient world? Which forms of gender expressions, sexuality, and desire become excluded in doing so? What are the dangers of supporting such origin myths? By probing at these and more questions, this seminar series will investigate the supposed utility of a straightforward search for origins, teasing out new connections from hostile sources through the following line-up of amazing speakers.

Programme:

16th May – Vanessa Stovall

A Womb with a (Re)view: the Birth of Masculine Heterosexual Diversion in Greco-Roman Myth

Registration: https://ics.sas.ac.uk/events/a-womb-a-review-birth-masculine-heterosexual-diversion-greco-roman-myth

30th May – Emilio Capettini

“Our Ancient Greek Dykes, Fags”: Queer Genealogies during the HIV/AIDS Crisis

Registration: https://ics.sas.ac.uk/events/our-ancient-greek-dykes-fags-queer-genealogies-during-hivaids-crisis

6th June – Sara Torres 

Glukupikron: The Meanings of Eros in Sapphic Poetic Subcultures

Registration: https://ics.sas.ac.uk/events/glukupikron-meanings-eros-sapphic-poetic-subcultures

13th June – Isabel Ruffell 

Why is Medea Shocking? Myths of Safe Spaces and the Anti-Trans Backlash

Registration: https://ics.sas.ac.uk/events/why-medea-shocking-myths-safe-spaces-and-anti-trans-backlash

20th June – Cat Lambert

Forging Lesbians: Sappho, Bilitis, and the Politics of Authenticity

Registration: https://ics.sas.ac.uk/events/forging-lesbians-sappho-bilitis-and-politics-authenticity

27th June – London Classicists of Colour

Registration: https://ics.sas.ac.uk/events/collective-intervention-series-back-a-time-i-had-form-ancient-origin-myths-queerness

4th July – Jennifer Ingleheart 

Unoriginal Sins: Some Problems with Finding Queer Origins in Classical Antiquity

Registration: https://ics.sas.ac.uk/events/unoriginal-sins-some-problems-finding-queer-origins-classical-antiquity