Dangerous Liaisons: Classical Antiquity and LGBTQ Movements in Greece, the UK, and the US

ongoing

Contemporary lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) movements actively engage with the past. Through archival selection and historiographical accounts, they construct, interpret, and preserve their collective identities. The proposed project, HomoClassicisms, focuses specifically on the cases of LGBTQ movements in Greece, the UK, and the US. Its research goal is to address, through the use of innovative qualitative methodologies from a Southern epistemological perspective, the position of classical antiquity in LGBTQ historiographies. The project aims to investigate whether the movements might become complicit with racialised narratives of identity formation in their articulation of particular pasts. Embracing a bottom-up approach, the project adopts an intersectional and interdisciplinary perspective to map, understand, and critically analyse longstanding omissions in LGBTQ historiographies. Indeed, this is a timely and urgent undertaking. In light of transnational migration and demographic dynamics currently challenging Western societies, investigating who is included and who is excluded within LGBTQ historiographies becomes a critical project. The project thus firmly aligns with the fourth key strategic orientation of Horizon Europe (HE): Creating a more resilient, inclusive and democratic European society. The project’s publication plan includes four peer-reviewed articles. Its extensive impact involves engaged modes of dissemination with international LGBTQ communities, archivists, policymakers, and the general public, following HE’s paradigm change from an activity-driven to an impact-driven approach. The fellow will acquire the necessary skills and research mentoring to analyse intersectional inequalities in relation to politicised uses of the past in a transnational context and to inform, enrich, and challenge theoretical debates originating from Global North over LGBTQ historiography, providing policy-relevant results.