Dulwich Library's LGBTQ+ Film Club

Friday, June 28, 2024 Pavilion, University of Westminster - New Cavendish Campus 115 New Cavendish Street London W1W 6UW

Vision

University of Westminster’s Queering Academia 2024 examines the role of queer education and scholarship against the backdrop of the changing landscape of higher education. This one-day gathering brings together students, academics, support professionals, industry and community partners, and activists to consider the significance of queer lives (and lived experience) within both formal and informal institutions of higher education. We encourage papers, panels, performances, and presentations examining the significance of queer ways of thinking, being, and acting in higher education and scholarship. We encourage diverse contributions that imagine the possibilities of engaging queer and intersectional perspectives in universities and the scholarship of learning and teaching.

Context

The UK government’s LGBT Action Plan (2018) has affirmed that “all LGBT people should feel welcomed and safe at school, college and university so that they can reach their full potential.”

Stonewall Report (2018) found that:

  • 2 in 5 LGBT students (42%) have hidden their identity at university for fear of discrimination.
  • 7% per cent of trans students have been physically attacked by another student or member of university staff.
  • Two-thirds of LGBTQ students (69 per cent) say university has equalities policies that protect LGBTQ people on campus.

 

The Second Annual Queering Academia event also seeks to engage some of the work being undertaken by the Office for Students on the experience of LGBTQ students in higher education. We encourage cross-cultural and comparative discussion of equality, diversity, and inclusion frameworks and diversity initiatives in global higher education.

Queering Academia 2024 explores challenges facing LGBT people and how these can be developed through our engagement with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). When the United Nations decided to create a set of global goals to end poverty and inequality by 2030, equality groups pushed for the rights and needs of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people to be considered. The SDGs were agreed in 2015 and signed onto by 193 governments on the basis that they apply to everyone, everywhere and will ‘leave no one behind’.

As part of Westminster Conversations: Queering Academia 2024, we will also be running a series of inclusive events to support queer belonging in higher education – from a queer karaoke (‘sing your queer experience of higher ed’), queer henna sessions (connect with diverse expressions of queer), and queer crafting (channel your queer energy by crafting). Watch this space!

Submit your proposal for participation

We welcome proposals for:

  • Papers
  • Workshops
  • Panels
  • Presentations
  • Performances (music, theatre, experimental etc)
  • Art based installations and multimedia presentations
  • Spoken word and poetry
  • And any other format or medium you wish to consider!

We seek contributions from any and no disciplines (and especially beyond academia). We hope to engage students, academics, activists and artists working with relevant themes, including (but not limited to):

 

  1. Being queer in higher ed

What is the queer student experience?

Supporting queer students

Queer belonging in higher ed

Queer research: methodologies and frameworks

Life as a queer PhD student

How do we talk about LGBTQIA+ in higher ed?

Race, queer, ad higher ed

Trans experiences/knowledges of higher ed

Non-binary experiences/knowledges of higher ed

Neurodiversity and queer

Ableism, disability, and queer

Queer transitions in/into higher ed

Racialised experiences of queer

Histories of queer in higher ed

Imagining a queer inclusive university

Queering employability

Queering global mobility

Queering leadership

Queering student partnership work

 

  1. Doing queer in higher ed

Queering the Sustainable Development Goals

Queering STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics)

Queering the liberal arts

Queering the law school

Queering the social sciences

Queering health and medicine

Queering the business school

Queering art, design, architecture

Queering computing and engineering

Queering decolonisation and decolonising queer

Get tickets

 

The above list is indicative only. We are open to conversing and engaging with a range of diverse and wonderful perspectives. Please do get in touch if you wish to chat more about this event and how you might participate (including any accessibility requirements to facilitate participation at this event).

The event is part of Quintin Hogg Trust-Supported EDI Programme “Community and Communities” at the University of Westminster.

Deadline for submission of proposals is Friday 4 May 2024. Please email Rajat Shah

Co-convenors: Dr Simon Avery, Dr Thomas Moore, Rajat Shah

For event queries, please contact Rajat Shah: r.shah8@westminster.ac.uk