°×С½ãÂÛ̳

To coincide with LGBT History Month in 2018, Professor Bob Mills (°×С½ãÂÛ̳ History of Art) devised Hide & Seek: A Queer Tour of Bloomsbury.

Bob is Professor of Medieval Studies and former director of q°×С½ãÂÛ̳
– a university-wide initiative that brings together °×С½ãÂÛ̳ staff and students with research and teaching interests in LGBTQ studies.Ìý

Hide & Seek began at °×С½ãÂÛ̳’s South Cloisters with an introductory talk in which Bob highlighted some of the LGBT histories around °×С½ãÂÛ̳. These included Jeremy Bentham, whose preserved skeleton, dressed in his own clothes with a wax head, sits in the Cloisters. Bentham was an early advocate for homosexual law reform.

On the tour volunteers from among the wider °×С½ãÂÛ̳ community – drawing especially on members of staff and PhD students attached to the Out @ °×С½ãÂÛ̳ and q°×С½ãÂÛ̳ networks – recounted stories and anecdotes connected with specific locations along the route, including images and quotations. Ìý

Participants were encouraged to form impromptu groups, issued with route maps, and set off on a ‘queer’ exploration of the neighbourhood. Some shared their own experiences and stories, adding a personal dimension to the tour.

Hide & Seek was such an enormous success that it had a waiting list and the event ran twice more as part of the °×С½ãÂÛ̳ Festival of Culture and °×С½ãÂÛ̳’s offering for the Bloomsbury Festival in 2018.

In recognition of his work developing the tours, Bob also won the 2019 °×С½ãÂÛ̳ Provost’s Public Engagement Award for Established Public Engager of the Year.

Bob said:

“History affects us emotionally as well as intellectually. It helps build a sense of connection to others both now and in the past. One of the aims of Hide & Seek was to foster a sense of solidarity among °×С½ãÂÛ̳ staff, students and the wider LGBT+ community. By embedding °×С½ãÂÛ̳’s own queer histories and heritage in the broader landscape of Bloomsbury, I’d like to think that we played a part in furthering this goal.

Bob is currently working with °×С½ãÂÛ̳ Urban Laboratory to turn the walk into an audio tour with podcast-style contributions from the volunteer guides to ensure diverse voices are heard throughout. The tour also provided inspiration for The Queer Tapestry, an exhibition in °×С½ãÂÛ̳ Cloisters in February 2019, which Bob helped curate in collaboration with the Alumni Office and Out @ °×С½ãÂÛ̳.

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Links

• Hide & Seek: A Queer Tour of Bloomsbury
• Professor Bob Mills Academic Profile
• The Queer Tapestry
• Out@°×С½ãÂÛ̳
• q°×С½ãÂÛ̳

Image

• Credit: