Sexual outlaws and model citizens: Queer people and the nation since 1944

Sexual Outlaws and Model Citizens brings together scholars in the field of queer history and literature from Iceland, Ireland, Denmark, and Finland. The event is the concluding conference of the research project "From Sexual Outlaws to Model Citizens," which has been active since 2020 with funding from RANNÍS (The Icelandic Centre for Research) and the University of Iceland Research Fund. The conference is held in cooperation with The National Queer Association, The School of Education, The Institute of History and The Institute of Research in Literature and Visual Arts at the University of Iceland.

The event takes place in the National Museum’s lecture hall which is accessible to wheelchair users. Sign language interpretation will be provided upon request (please contact irisel@hi.is or flora@hi.is).

The event will be held in English

Program:

12.00-12.05 Welcome note

12.05-13.45 Queering activism
Peter Edelberg, University of Copenhagen: Deconstructing the Nation: Transnational Development of LGBT+ Activism in Scandinavia 1948-2021
Hafdís Erla Hafsteinsdóttir, University of Iceland: The public, the private and the homos. The making of the Icelandic homosexual in the 1980s
Þorsteinn Vilhjálmsson, University of Iceland: Killing Joy: Re-Imagining the Nation through Queer Joy at the Reykjavík Pride Parade
Anne Mulhall, University College Dublin: Queer Narratives After Marriage: Trauma, Joy and the Contemporary Irish Queer Memoir

13.45-14.05 Coffee break

14.05-15.25 Queering (national) literature
Ásta Kristín Benediktsdóttir, University of Iceland: Queer modernist or mere provoker? Halldór Laxness‘ writings on gender, sexuality and nationality in the 1920s and 30s
Kaisa Ilmonen, University of Turku: Intersectional and Transnational Cultural Memory in Michelle Cliff’s Free Enterprise
Anna Rós Árnadóttir, University of Iceland: Frog men, fleeting spaces and the roadless sea: the ocean as queer space in the works of Guðbergur Bergsson

15.30-16.30 Panel discussion: Where do we go from here? The future of queer history and literature research with the participation of academics and activists