Collecting, Cruising, Feeling: Exploring the Contemporary Queer Archival Fever in Italy

𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐂𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐲. 

𝐎𝐧𝐞-𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐮𝐦 (English and Italian)

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧: 9th June 2026, 9:00-17:30

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞: University Museum Utrecht (UMU), room Bovenzaal

This symposium focuses on the rapidly expanding field of Italian queer archival scholarship and practices. It brings together and stages a dialogue between scholars and archivists, scholars of Italian queer archives working within and outside of Italy, and scholars working in and across the fields of Gender, Queer, and Trans Studies, Italian Studies, and Archival Studies.

Some of the specific questions that we will address are: What is a queer archive in Italy, and how is it organized and maintained? What silences persist within Italian queer archives and how are these silences critically addressed? How do Italian queer archives deal with the contradictory combination of marginalisation and precarious institutionalisation (often through bottom-up activist and community efforts)? What is the impact of…