Header image

H3: Queering Heritage: From Theory and Criticism to Activism

Tracks
3
Wednesday, December 2, 2026
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
RHMZ03

Overview

Continuous discussion session


Paper / Session Submitter

Agenda Item Image
Dr Steve Brown
Adjunct Professor
University Of Canberra

Queering Heritage: From Theory and Criticism to Activism

Summary Abstract

This discussion-based session, a ‘coterie of queers’, explores queer heritage as a form of critical heritage, informed by queer theory, practice, and identity. It explores the disruptive nature of queerness as a provocation and criticism, while questioning whether queer heritage has any place in accepted heritage practice. The session will build on published papers in: Brown, Pocock, Mason (eds) (2024) ‘Queer Heritage’, Historic Environment 35(1).

The session contributes to the conference themes by exploring queer heritage as a form of activism that supports, celebrates, and builds queer identity and belonging. It also turns a critical lens on such activism by asking how the imposition of particular static and colonial concepts of queerness might undermine and disrupt cross-cultural understandings of fluidity in gender and sexuality. The session will conclude with an invitation to connect via research and publications, and, potentially, establishing a queer research-practitioner network.

Biographies

Steve Brown is an Adjunct Professor, University of Canberra, and Special Advisor with GML Heritage. Celmara Pocock is Professor of Heritage Studies at University of Southern Queensland. Denis Byrne is Professor of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. Lucas Lixinski is Professor and Associate Dean (International) at the Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney. Kavita Peterson is an emerging museum professional and current PhD candidate of Pasifika (Fiji-Indian)/white settler descent based in Naarm. Robert Mason is a public historian and museum studies scholar, at Griffith University, Australia. Yorick Smaal is an Associate Professor of history at Griffith University. João Pedro Otoni is an Architect and Urban Planner from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (Brazil). PhD candidate in Built Environment and Sustainable Heritage at UFMG. Madeline Kelly is a non-Indigenous, queer, and gender-fluid, early-career archaeological scholar and rock art specialist at Flinders University. Angela Bailey is a curator, photographer and creative producer whose practice actively explores and interprets queer histories and culture by creating exhibitions, installations, discourse, and public programs of engagement. Clay Law (they/them) is a white trans-masculine nonbinary archaeologist living in Naarm (Melbourne).
loading