Re:Search – Breathing New Life into Queer History

Researching queer history is rarely straightforward, as we so often only find our stories in the margins – or in our imaginations. How do we weave these fragments of history and lore into a tangible tapestry, and how can we use them to make queer futures?

Chaired by writer, artist, and historian Morgan M. Page, this panel brings together writer and historian Sacha Coward (Queer as Folklore), dress historian Eleanor Medhurst (Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion) and cultural guru DJ Ritu (Desi Queers) to discuss the novel ways modern researchers are bringing queer history out of the closet and into the light.

Sacha Coward is a researcher, historian, public speaker and Sunday Times bestselling author. Queer as Folklore: The Hidden Queer History of Myths and Monsters takes readers across centuries and continents to reveal the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. He has also written and researched a wide range of subjects including Turing’s Law, the rainbow flag, Caravaggio’s paintings and Viking burials. With a particular interest in LGBTQ+ history, underrepresented audiences in heritage and mythology and folklore, Sacha has worked alongside museums and heritage sites ‘queering spaces’ for over fifteen years. Sacha has featured on a variety of television, radio and podcasts and splits his time between London and Stroud.

Morgan M Page is a writer, historian, artist, and activist currently based in London, England. With Chase Joynt, she is the co-writer of the feature film Framing Agnes — a trans history documentary featuring a cast of trans actors turning a TV talk show inside out to confront the legacy of a young trans woman forced to choose between honesty and access. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022, where it won two awards. Together, they also wrote the book Boys Don’t Cry (MQUP, 2022), a critical history of the 1999 film by Kimberly Peirce. In 2021, she executive produced the award-winning podcast series Harsh Reality: the Miriam Rivera Story (Wondery/Novel). And has also produced audio dramas for BBC Radio 4. Originally from Canada, Page’s nightmarish performance and video art has shown in galleries and festivals around the world, including the MOCA Taipei (2019), Brooklyn Museum (New York, 2016), the New Museum Resource Centre (New York, 2018), NEMAF New Media Arts Festival (Seoul, South Korea, 2013), and the Adelaide Street Gallery (Melbourne, Australia, 2014). A Lambda Literary Fellow, her essays have been published in Harper’s Bazaar, Dazed, Buzzfeed, the Globe and Mail, and GUTS Magazine, as well as in anthologies including Best Sex Writing of the Year, vol 1 (Cleis Press) and Red Light Labour (UBC Press, 2018). Her fiction has been published in literary magazines such as Plenitude Magazine, as well as in anthologies such as Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers (Topside Press, 2017). She also writes and hosts One From the Vaults, the one and only podcast covering all of the dirt, gossip, and glamour from trans history. It can be found on Soundcloud and iTunes.