The University of Sheffield to welcome a fellow from the European University Institute to speak about their recent LGBTQ+ research
The University of Sheffield is introducing an interdisciplinary lecture by expanding LGBTQ research, discussions, and events on campus.
The series ‘The Lectures on Gender and Sexuality’ by the university has already attracted the attention of academics and students from various universities in the UK and increasingly elsewhere in the world.
This Lecture will feature Guest speaker Dr Gee Semmalar, a Max Weber Fellow, European University Institute, research on Trans History Through Colonial Photography in British India (1860-1890).
Dr Semmalar shared his thoughts as a trans man from India and author specialising in British India history, said: “My lived experience as a trans person contributes in significant ways to how my understanding of caste and gender as co-constitutive developed.
“For instance, caste respectability played a significant role in my erasure from given families lending itself as implicit justification for being disowned by that structure.”
Dr Semmalar approaches colonial archives with suspicion and is critical to ensure his work, once published, is catalogued and organised.
When questioned on the understanding of caste dynamics regarding visual representation, and colonial history of the late nineteenth-century British India, he said: “My central argument is about the impossibility of separating caste from any analysis of subject formation in the south Asian context.
“This is true of the contemporary period as well as historically.”
Creator and head of the ’Lectures on Gender and Sexuality’ series, Dr Surabhi Shukla, is hoping to create an atmosphere within the university and the city where people from different departments and walks of life can engage with queer communities so “that there is a continuous feeling of engagement with contemporary queer issues and a feeling that this is a university where the conversation is alive and well.”
The series will be inviting scholars like Dr Semmalar who are working on ‘cutting edge issues’ impacting the queer community to provide their research-led findings.
Dr Shukla further added: “The aim is simply this – if there is an issue relevant to the queer communities, no matter where that community is, we are interested.
“We want to create a feeling within the city that the university, especially the law school, is one where queer issues and queer people are welcome.”
There is also a legal clinic programme within the law school for legal advice and signposting.
The event will begin on 22 November and be held at the Fredrick. Mappin building between 4:30 – 6pm. The talk will be followed by refreshments.
