Our LGBT+ History Research Showcase was a great opportunity for PGs to share the work they have been doing
As part of LGBT+ History Month, we hosted a research showcase with our postgraduate community! This was a great opportunity for Postgraduate Taught and Postgraduate Research students to share the work they have been doing and meet fellow postgrads. Read more about the research featured in this showcase below…
Adam Khan, ‘The Trans Pride Movement’
“Trans Pride is not a new phenomenon, yet multiple recent factors have galvanised trans activists to organise explicitly in the name of Trans Pride. Trans-centric protests predate the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York, with notable examples including the 1959 Cooper Do-nuts Riot in Los Angeles and the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riot in San Francisco. However, only since the 2000s have explicit trans rights marches become more commonplace, such as in 2004 in San Francisco and 2009 in Toronto. Since the founding of Trans Pride Brighton in 2013, 25 Trans Pride organisations have been established across the UK and Ireland, with even more launching later in 2025. The Trans Pride Collective was also set up in 2023, which hosted the first Trans Pride Assembly in 2023 and the second in 2025. There are also Trans Prides all across the world.
“The factors that galvanised the movement in the UK and Ireland include the predominant neoliberal capitalist frameworks, which post-2010 austerity measures bolstered. This hostile climate deepened the need for grassroots, community-based support. Since the mid-2010s, there has been increasing anti-trans rhetoric in the media and the government, concurrent with increasing challenges to gender-affirming healthcare and the isolation felt during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic, all of which created introspection within the trans community, with increases of mutual aid provision from within. Divergence from the commercialisation of mainstream Pride events has also led to a focus on grassroots and intersectional organising, bringing the broader LGBTQIA+ movement back to its roots, such as seen in Gay Liberation in the 1960s and Lesbian Liberation in the 1980s.”
Alexander Moran, ‘For the Future: Animating Queer Utopia in The Owl House and Steven Universe’
"This research project analyses Steven Universe and The Owl House and determines whether their representations of queerness and utopia can encourage the growth of a real-world queer utopia. Building on queer theory, notably José Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia (2019), I characterise a queer utopia as intersectional, equitable, and rooted in an awareness of historical power structures.
“The research finds that both shows portray their own ideas of utopian worldbuilding, however the extent to which they are effectively queer utopias varies between seasons and shows. Steven Universe ultimately fails to portray a queer utopia due to its misrepresentation of Black- and Latina-coded characters. The Owl House, conversely, successfully portrays a queer utopia which is truly equitable and historically-conscious in its development. Ultimately, while it is important that queer children see worlds where they are the protagonists, it is equally important that they know they live in a world that allows queer kids to be written as the protagonists. It is for this reason that real-world utopian potential is already visible in the growing intersectionality of children’s media."
Matthew Lloyd & Dr Isabelle Hertner (KCL), ‘LGBTQ+ liberation: When and why have political parties in the UK modernised their policy positions?’
“Over the past three decades, successive UK governments have strengthened the rights of LGBTQ+ people, but the fight for equality continues. This is the first study to analyse and compare the conditions under which the UK’s major political parties of government—the Conservative Party, Labour Party and Liberal Democrats—have modernised, or failed to modernise, their policies on same-sex adoption, same-sex marriage, and gender recognition. We test competing explanations of party policy modernisation, accounting for both endogenous factors (internal party dynamics) and exogenous factors (external political and societal pressures). Using process tracing, we determine the sequence of factors leading to policy change, identifying the mechanisms that facilitate or obstruct modernisation. This study draws on elite interviews and party document analysis to provide new empirical insights into the drivers of party change. Our initial findings suggest that party leadership change and shifts in dominant factions have played a crucial role in policy modernisation, but with variation across parties and over time. For example, David Cameron’s leadership marked a shift in Conservative Party positioning on LGBTQ+ rights, as part of an effort to shed its ‘nasty party’ image. However, reforms such as same-sex marriage faced internal opposition from party members, elites, and conservative-aligned media. Additionally, the high turnover of party leaders in recent years has led to fluctuating positions on gender recognition policy, particularly within the Conservatives and Labour. Notably, key LGBTQ+ rights—such as same-sex adoption, gender recognition, and same-sex marriage—were often absent from party manifestos, raising questions about how and why parties approach LGBTQ+ policy reform. This paper contributes to the literature on party change, policy modernisation, and LGBTQ+ rights in the UK.”
It was great to hear from these speakers at our Postgraduate Research Showcase, and we thank them for their time and efforts. We look forward to seeing where their research takes them next!
If you would like to participate in future research showcases, please keep an eye out on our Postgraduate Hub. Our next showcase is in line with Asian Heritage Month on 18 March. Express your interest by filling out our form here!