Queering climate activism: Engaging young LGBTQ+ people with climate research

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Our project draws on the research of PI Linge and Co-I Funke. Linge is a Lecturer in German at the University of Exeter who is working on a project called 'Sex and Nature: Sexology, Animals and the Arts after 1900'. The project explores how concepts of nature and the environment were essential to the development of modern concepts of sex, gender and sexuality. For example, geneticists first applied the word 'intersex' to butterflies in 1917, long before it was used to describe human anatomy or identity. Funke is an Associate Professor of English and Sexuality Studies at the University of Exeter with research specialisms in queer, trans and feminist modernist studies and the history of sexual science. As PI on the NLHF-funded Out and About: Queering the Museum project, she has worked with young LGBTQ+ people to explore LGBTQ+ heritage through the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) collections. This has revealed that young LGBTQ+ people are strongly engaged with natural history and climate research.The 'Queering climate activism' project builds on Linge and Funke's research expertise to engage young LGBTQ+ people with historical materials that show the intricate links between gender, sexuality, nature and climate: early twentieth-century LGBTQ+ activist Magnus Hirschfeld, for instance, was keenly interested in the human connection with nature and the environment, including the weather. Lesbian sexologist Edith Ellis wrote about Cornish seaweeds and seascapes, reflecting her bond with a changing natural world. Gay rights campaigner Edward Carpenter promoted vegetarianism and farming as part of a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Discussing these and other examples will empower young LGBTQ+ people to explore their central role in climate research and activism today.To achieve the project aims, we will involve the young people in a series of bespoke interactive in-person (or online) engagement events in Cornwall and Devon in September and October 2021. Each three-hour event will explore historical print, film and literary material as well as local objects from the Tate St Ives and Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) collections, which highlight the connection between gender, sexuality and the environment.As part of the Wellcome Trust-funded Transformations project (2019-2020), a public engagement project with young trans and non-binary people to explore the history of sexual science, both PI and Co-I have gained significant experience in using historical material to engage young LGBTQ+ people. This is an innovative and flexible approach to engagement: we provide material for discussion and draw on our research to answer questions, but the direction of the discussions as well as specific topics and interests are decided on by the young collaborators. The young people's insights will then be drawn upon to develop a creative output to share their knowledge and insights more widely. As part of this process, the young people will take part in an additional three-hour comedy-writing workshop with LGBTQ+ comedian Sian Docksey. The final public engagement event of the project will be an online comedy salon, during which a local artist will present a performance based on the young people's writing during the comedy workshop. For this, we will approach Kim Wei, a non-binary queer performer who is currently the Bard of Exeter. In this way, we will enable young people to share the knowledge and expertise that they have gained through the project and to gain the confidence to use their expertise as part of LGBTQ+ and climate activism. We will record and publish the Salon on our "Sex & Nature Salon" website to share it with wider audiences online, who will be encouraged to expand their thinking around climate activism to incorporate LGBTQ+ perspectives.For information about project partners see the "Personal Eligibility" section. For a detailed breakdown of the impact, see the "Beneficiaries and Anticipated Impact" section