Beyond the Binary: Performing Gender Then and Now

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Beyond the Binary (BtB) is a collaborative research and public engagement project which brings together public volunteers, archivists, academic researchers and students to answer the following questions: - What can historic performances of music hall and pantomime tell us about attitudes towards gender and gender expression in the past? - How can new knowledge around this inform understanding, discussion and exploration of gender diversity today?Working together to explore the University of Kent's world-class music hall and pantomime collections, we will unearth histories of gender play and presentation from the Victorian era to the present and share these with the wider public. Music hall and pantomime are forms well-known for going 'beyond the binary' in exploring gender: most notably through cross-dressing but also through witty word play, songs and music. These collections therefore make an ideal focus for this project. In the first phase of the project we will focus on investigating the materials held in the collections, and cataloguing and preserving these for future researchers. Our research team will include volunteers working in-person in the University of Kent's archives, in Canterbury, who will uncover materials for digitisation by our technician. It will also include volunteers working remotely who will explore those digitised sources using additional research resources such as the British Newspaper Archive and Ancestry. The whole research team will come together to discuss and share findings in six workshops. Our findings, both in terms of new perspectives and rediscovered materials, which will shape the content of the public engagement programme which is the focus of phase 2. In the second phase of the project the findings around our research questions and the new materials uncovered will be brought to new audiences through our programme of public engagement. This programme includes a 'pop-up' banner exhibition which will tour to partners including the Gulbenkian Canterbury, Theatre Royal Brighton and King's Theatre Portsmouth; an interactive Hands-on History workshop presented at The Beaney, Canterbury; and a showpiece lecture-concert co-created by COI Double and the Lunatraktors, a non-binary performance duo. It will also feature comedian Mark Thomas subject to availability. Through this ambitious programme of collaborative research and public engagement, Beyond the Binary has multiple aims. These include:- Broadening understandings and perspectives on both gender and popular performance 'then and now'. - Improving skills, capabilities and confidence for participants.- Increasing awareness and inclusion around issues of gender and diversity.- Increasing understanding of the value of history and heritage.- Increasing audience engagement with our partners and host venues and thereby providing an economic boost to the creative and cultural industries in the wake of Covid.- Boosting research capacity and opening up new avenues of research.