Solidarity Statement

‘Queer and the Classical’ is committed to supporting the LGBTQ+ community and stands unequivocally in solidarity with the fight for trans and queer liberation. We believe that queer liberation movements worldwide go hand in hand with anti-colonial struggles. In alignment with this commitment, ‘Queer and the Classical’ also stands unequivocally in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. In the face of recent acts of violence and decades-long suppression, occupation, and dehumanization, we firmly support the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people. We also reject attempts to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism

Listed here you can find work, events, ideas, petitions, opportunities, and other resources for our community. Please email us if there is anything in line with this mission that you would like to display below. 

Resources

• Trans in Classics (reachable @TransinClassics or on Facebook)

• The Sportula and Sportula Europe

• Trans Syllabus for Bullshit Times

• The ’In Dialogue: Trans Studies & Classics’ column, Society for Classical Studies Blog

• The Sex & History Project, University of Exeter

Petitions

• UK-based petitions and organisations: https://transrightsuk.carrd.co

• Sign to ban all forms of conversion therapy in the UK: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/613556

• US-based LGBTQ+ Elder Health Care Guide: https://www.retireguide.com/guides/lgbtq-elder-health-care/

• Campaign for Alice, to recognise the lack of access to gender affirming care in the UK as complicit in the death of young trans people

• Classicists and Ancient Historians in Solidarity with the people of Palestine: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJ0cOXwO9kwLgiysxh2c-UEms0zKcyaK0t5SGyAA3GwPs8tg/viewform

• Queers in Palestine: https://queersinpalestine.noblogs.org/?fbclid=PAAaZLo2JnSoi_XjhAJp_oMWhx6gKGOcKCw7qVKmhz9a81OoZ2J-icg9DNr2o

Events

• LESBIANTIQUITY is a zine-anthology of Greek & Latin writings about women loving women which will be updating weekly through 2024. LESBIANTIQUITY will present all the surviving texts from classical antiquity that depict homosexual or homoerotic activity between women: 22 authors across a millennium, from Alkman (7th century BC Sparta) to Nonnos (5th century AD Egypt). The texts are given in English translation with the original Greek/Latin and facing notes. The English translations come with a twist: they are in Root & Branch translation, which sticks closely to root meanings of words, and branches out to give variant readings – giving readers the closest possible contact with the original texts, and something like a ‘create your own adventure’. LESBIANTIQUITY has been created by an all-female(+), all-queer group of classicists, and kicks off with a preface by the expert in classical lesbianism, Professor Sandra Boehringer. Go to LESBIANTIQUITY to read the first issue, and to subscribe to hear when a new issue comes out.

• ‘Queer & Trans Philologies’ (22nd-23rd March 2024) is a two-day hybrid conference that seeks to give a platform to this unruly family of philologies by bringing together researchers working across disciplines on the historical ties between language, sexuality, and embodiment. The conference invites historically inflected research that builds on and broadens the linguistic and geographical scope of queer and trans philologies, that attends to the present afterlives of past taxonomies (Amin 2023), or that places trans and queer heuristics in dialogue with other modes of understanding language/sexuality/embodiment from feminist, critical race, and postcolonial studies – whether under the rubric of vocabularies of feeling (Spillers 1984), seductive sapphistry (Marcus 1987), nonce taxonomy (Sedgwick 1990), ephemeral archives (Muñoz 1996), histories of use (Ahmed 2019), or queer historical linguistics (Leap 2020). For more information and registration details, see their Website. 

• The Lambda Classical Caucus invites submissions for its panel at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the SCS in Philadelphia, on the topic of ”Queer Families in the Ancient Mediterranean World”. This panel explores non-normative households and kinship groups in the ancient world, broadening the definition of family beyond the conventional heterosexual model. Topics include same-sex relationships, divine parenting, relationships within same-sex religious communities, non-traditional households (brothels, military encampments), polyamorous relationships, and alternate interpretations of material evidence. Abstracts following guidelines are due by March 1, and should be sent to Bryan Burns at bburns@wellesley.edu. See SCS Guidelines for Authors of Abstracts for details. Decisions will be communicated by the 15th of March 2024.

• The TransHistorical Conference is taking place at the University of Liverpool on the 11th and 12th of July. The TransHistorical conference provides an opportunity for researchers of trans and nonbinary histories to learn from one anothers’ expertise and to advance trans theories by working more cohesively in a supportive, multidisciplinary environment. The conference is designed for researchers, practitioners and professionals of all stages and backgrounds who work with any aspect of trans and nonbinary histories, from prehistory to the twenty-first century. As TransHistorical does not limit location or period of time there is no set theme - a variety of subjects and approaches is celebrated!