India Marriott
February is LGBTQ+ History Month, and the University of Nottingham (UoN) has a host of events throughout the month to celebrate and bring awareness, organised by a “programme board of staff and student volunteers”. Explaining the on-going events is Impact’s Campus News Editor India.
The UoN theme for LGBTQ+ History Month 2022 is ‘Unmuting Ourselves’, “which aims to raise up and amplify the voices of our LGBTQ+ community, providing opportunities to educate ourselves and promote and encourage active allyship”.
Relating to the central ‘Unmuting Ourselves’ events, the launch took place on February 1st on University Park Campus alongside being streamed via Teams. This was followed by an exhibition, also entitled ‘Unmuting Ourselves’, showcasing projects in support of the LGBTQ+ community on the 7th of February and a ‘virtual conversation’ exploring media impact and influence on the LGBTQ+ community on the 9th.
“The shiny and sweaty push pull of living with shame while bursting with pride”
In regards to local events, ‘The Dan Daw Show’ was presented at Lakeside Arts on the 8th, which was described as “a peep into the shiny and sweaty push pull of living with shame while bursting with pride. This is a show about care, intimacy and resilience, about letting go and reclaiming yourself”.
On Wednesday 9th February, 3rd year Animal Science student Mariana discussed her year in industry placement, and how they used this opportunity as “a chance to promote diversity and inclusion in the farming community”, and on the 11th there was a film screening and panel discussion of ‘Ghost Empire’.
There are further events planned throughout the rest of the month
The Nottingham Libraries are hosting an LGBTQ+ reading group in collaboration with Dr Hannah Robbins at 12 noon on Thursday 24th February for “a celebration of LGBTQ+ writing” where they will be “sharing our favourite books and writers, and discussing why queer books matter.”
In addition to this, the libraries have asked staff and students to “share their recommendations of works by LGBTQ+ writers or titles that explore LGBTQ+ culture and history” to create a collaborative reading list. In 2020, the libraries “purchased 72 of the suggestions”, and in February 2021 many of these titles were made available as eBooks for all students to access these titles wherever they are.
There are further events planned throughout the rest of the month, such as an interactive seminar discussing ‘Why are all the best philosophers LGBTQ+?’ on Wednesday 23rd February, a ‘Safe Distance’ film screening and Q+A on the 24th, and a live streamed event entitled ‘Holocaust: Untold Histories’ on Monday 28th February. LGBTQ+ Officer, Barbara Sledz, has stated there will also be further events in collaboration with various societies that have yet to be announced! For more information regarding these events, read here.
You can sign up to the reading group here, and also check out the reading list here.
India Marriott
Featured image courtesy of Stavrialena Gontzou via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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