Global Queer History

The lecture will discuss four moments that are usually considered important turning points in modern queer history: the ‘invention of the homosexual’ in the late 19th century, the roaring 1920s, the ‘Stonewall moment’ around 1969 and the introduction of ‘marriage for all’ since the 2000s. What narrative emerges from this timeline of events and how can global, transnational or decolonial frameworks question this chronology?  Which other trajectories come into view when we look at queer history through a non-Western-centric lens? And how can these other trajectories generally draw our attention to moments and dynamics that do not easily fit within celebratory success stories about a universal tendency towards the acceptance of sexual and gender diversity?

Suggested readings: 

• Cruz-Malavé, Arnaldo and Manalansan, Martin F.. "Introduction. Dissident Sexualities/Alternative Globalisms". Queer Globalizations: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism, edited by Arnaldo Cruz-Malave and Martin F. Manalansan, New York, USA: New York University Press, 2002, pp. 1-10.
• Chiang, Howard. “Trans without Borders: Resisting the Telos of Transgender Knowledge.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 32, no. 1 (2023): 1–11.