InterQueer: Crossing Queer and Intersectional Lenses in Historical Practice

The research groups Queer and Feminist Studies at the European University Institute and Storie di Sessualità e Genere at the University of Padua invite researchers to a two-day workshop aimed at fostering new reflections on queer and/or intersectional perspectives in historical research. The workshop seeks to critically discuss how tools, categories, and practices are shaped by heteronormative assumptions and the presupposition of fixed identities, and, conversely, how queer and intersectional approaches can help us to interpret the past in a fuller and more complex manner.

In recent decades, queer history and intersectional history have become increasingly established areas within historiography. Developing mainly from gay and lesbian studies (Halperin, 2002), queer history has questioned an identity-based, and genealogical approach that failed to reflect the fragmented, inconsistent and discontinuous nature of how a person perceives themselves within social and cultural networks (Doan, 2013; Amin, 2023). While still closely linked to the history of non-conforming genders and sexualities, the queer approach enables us to understand complex phenomena relating to the construction, performance and attachment of subjectivities to particular models or forms of the self (Gammerl, 2021; Sarıtaş, 2024).

In fact, some studies have shown how the flexibility of the queer approach can reveal dimensions that would otherwise remain invisible even when analysing historical phenomena that are far removed from the traditional field of investigation of queer history. Scholars have also demonstrated how queer lenses can uncover power dynamics within different political regimes, such as colonial settings (Camilleri and Fusari, 2022) or the development of participatory democracy in the second half of the 20th century (Huneke and Chin, 2025). These perspectives reveal how unstable conceptions of gender and sexuality highlight invisible and alternative historical processes.

Veuillez envoyer une proposition de 500 mots maximum et une courte biographie à interqueer.padova gmail com avant le 28 novembre 2025.