Queer Clicks: visual representation of queerness in the archive

Queer Clicks explores how queerness is visualised in archives and collections.

Marginalised groups such as the LGBTQ+ community, have historically existed at the margins of recorded history. If they exist in state records, it is often for them not fitting societal norms. The Gay Liberation Movement of the 1970s did valuable work in documenting and archiving lesbian and gay experience. Queer visual histories have established historical figures and cultural works, insisting on distinct representations.
In recent years, British archives and collections such as the National Archives, the Wellcome Collection, and the Bishopsgate Institute have been active in identifying and collecting records of queer lives. Queerness has a newfound visibility, evidenced in the increasing number of surviving visual representations.

They raise questions around their use in humanities research, in theory and practice-based terms. How do we engage with these visual forms of evidence and how can we work with archives and collections to creatively enrich the account?

Queer Clicks is a mixture of presentations, conversations and performances from CSM staff and students, archivists and collections specialists, and external guests.

Being Human Festival

This event is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 5-14 November 2026. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org