As Pride Month drew to a close, on 8 July, the European University Institute came out for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex, asexual, and queer (LGBTQIA+) rights at the annual Toscana Pride parade, while on 1 July, the EUI-LGBTQIA+ Society joined Bologna Pride.
The participation in this year's Toscana Pride parade is the culmination of a month of activities dedicated to raising visibility on LGBTQIA+ history and experiences at the Institute. Read on to learn more about a non-exhaustive list of activities organised in the context of Pride Month 2023.
Throughout the month of June, the EUI raised the Progress Pride Flag in different locations across the EUI campus: Badia Fiesolana, Villa Salviati, Villa Schifanoia, and Palazzo Buontalenti, to not only mark its support for the LGBTQIA+ community, but more importantly to take the opportunity to reflect both on the progress that has been made so far for LGBTQIA+ rights and the long way still to go to reach full equality.
At the EUI Library, shelf markers were displayed next to books on LGBTQIA+ topics to help readers find dedicated research on the topic. In addition, the EUI Library organised a display of e-resources zooming in on LGBTQIA+ people’s contribution to our society. Read more about the EUI Library’s Academic Guide for LGBTQIA+ Pride Month here.
In a run-up to LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, the EUI's Queer and Feminist Studies Working Group organised their annual conference on ‘Queer Dis-eases: Disruptive Histories, Politics, and Bodies’, exploring the intersectionality between queer theory and 'crip' theory. Held on 22-23 May, the event gathered activists, artists, and researchers from around the globe to reflect on how queerness generates discomfort and can become a political tool for collective action.
On 28 April, the Working Group also organised the public discussion, ‘Queerness between colonialism and migration: intersecting voices and experiences’, at Libri Liberi, on the connections between queerness, the history and memory of Italian colonialism, and the current debates on migrations.
On 22 June, participants in the workshop ‘Women and Gender in International Economic History Methodological Issues and Challenges’, co-organised by the ERC ECOINT and EURECON projects, analysed the discriminations that turn sites of economic power into majority-male worlds, doubly excluding women and non-binary people by naturalising their absence or invisibilising their presence.
The EUI Cineclub hosted 'They are a bit boring, aren't they?: Heterophobic cinema', a short cine-club cycle of two screenings inspired by and dedicated to Pride Month. The screenings, Pink Flamingos (1972) and Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (2011), represent films that do not accommodate the straight gaze and go beyond mainstream – focused on the cishet audience – filmmaking.
Interested in learning more about LGBTQIA+ inclusion at the EUI?
- The Queer and Feminist Studies Working Group provides a space for fostering discussions on different issues related to queer and feminist theory. The working group organises various sessions to discuss papers written by EUI researchers, exchange thoughts on feminism, gender, and queer movements, and host guest speakers.
- The EUI-LGBTQIA+ Society is an informal social group for anyone affiliated with the European University Institute: researchers, students, trainees, post-docs, faculty, staff, partners, etc. The goal of the Society is to create a supportive and intersectional network that is positively anti-homophobic, anti-transphobic, anti-classist, anti-ableist, anti-sexist, and anti-racist.
If you have any ideas, proposals, or questions that can help us enhance LGBTQIA+ inclusion at the EUI, please contact the Dean for EDI, Professor Lauren Kassell, and the EDI Officer, Giuseppe Zago, at [email protected].