Critically Queer Research Group

Critically Queer began in 2018 when two PhD students at the University of Bristol came together to build queer community and carve out queer spaces within the local academic context. After several years of events, including a two-day international conference with 140 delegates, we took a break due to the limitations of COVID. As of 2022, we are a SPAIS research group focused on continuing our earlier work in an increasingly queer school.

Our group

The Critically Queer research group consists of staff and students at the University of Bristol and beyond, who have an interest in anything related to queer or queering (i.e.non-normative world building). Some of us are queer, some of us study queerness or use queer theory in our research, and some of us are both queer and researching and/or teaching queerly.

We have a strong vein of activist research across the group and many members teaching innovative units based on queer, feminist, and decolonial pedagogic praxis.

Our aims/motives

To bring together people taking a queer approach to research and/or teaching to share ideas
To explore queer approaches to research and theory building
To ensure that teaching in SPAIS considers non-normative genders and sexualities
To provide a collegial space for queer staff and students
To facilitate research links between group members
To build queer community within and beyond the university