A colourful and engaging photo exhibition featuring 53 artworks submitted by staff and students at the University, and members of the public was on display in the Jessop West foyer during February.
LGBT history month
The curator of the exhibition, Dr Minna Shkul explained, “We wanted to give an opportunity to Sheffield’s LGBT* community to connect with LGBT history, to celebrate, and visualise gay life in the city. All photos were submitted by volunteer contributors following a call on social media, and it has been such a joy and privilege to curate the exhibition.”
The exhibition included both amateur and professional photographs. Contributors reflected deeply on the topic of LGBT history month, queering gender, sharing coming out stories, and visual memories of bullying they have experienced, as well as stories that had inspired them on their journey. Many images celebrated diversity in the Sheffield region, bonds of friendship and romance, and little things that make everyday life worth celebrating, like knitting, cakes, country walks, and gay bars. Among the exhibits was a collection of photos from students and teachers on Sheffield’s new LGBT* Studies module and portfolios of the LGBT Staff Network.
Launch Event
The launch event on Monday 23 February was a great success, as the foyer filled with visitors, including many exhibition contributors and members of the public. The evening’s highlight was Dr Mark Pendleton‘s (East Asian Studies) engaging lecture enjoyed by audience of over 50 people packed into the Jessop West Social Space. Dr Pendleton is one of the teachers on Sheffield’s LGBT* Studies module, and a co-editor of After Homosexual: Legacies of Gay Liberation (2014). His lecture, entitled “Thinking Queer about the Life of James Kirkup: Poet, Conscientious Objector and Japanophile”, explored Kirkup’s controversial life and poetry, and the idea of queering the past.
Come and celebrate LGBT History Month at the launch of the Hidden Perspectives LGBT Photo Exhibition on Monday 23 February, 5pm in Jessop West Foyer, University of Sheffield.
There’ll be a drinks reception at 5pm, followed by a lecture by Dr Mark Pendleton at 6pm in Jessop Social Space.
This is Connor, a University of Sheffield student and an athlete, with his photo for the exhibition.
Don’t forget the deadline for submissions to the Hidden Perspectives LGBT Photo Exhibition is 15 February so get your selfies to us ASAP!
Here’s a bit about the exhibition and instructions for submission:
SIIBS Hidden Perspectives Project has joined forces with the University of Sheffield’s LGBT Network to host a photo exhibition on Monday 23 to Friday 27 February to celebrate LGBT life in Sheffield.
The exhibition will bring together local amateur and professional photographers and will showcase images submitted by volunteer contributors to celebrate LGBT lives in Sheffield and diversity at the University. Artists who submit their work will have the opportunity to add written content to share their thoughts, poems, or questions, by bringing together words and pictures the exhibition seeks to give a platform to LGBT people to express themselves through an artistic process. The exhibit will also include work by University of Sheffield students on the pioneering interdisciplinary LGBT* Studies module. The exhibition continues the legacy of previous LGBT projects at the University of Sheffield, celebrating everyday life, milestones in equality and to highlight challenges that the LGBT community face.
The event is organized by Hidden Perspectives Co-Director, and Leader of the LGBT Studies module, Dr Minna Shkul who commented;
“It’s very exciting that the University is celebrating LGBT life in Sheffield with this exhibition, not only will in feature images from the LGBT community at the University but also from Sheffield’s own LGBT residents. The city is a diversely rich one in terms of its communities and I urge Sheffield’s own LGBT community to submit their pictures, visualise their community and take part in a piece of history.”
Hidden Perspectives are asking the LGBT community to send in their photos that celebrate everyday life in Sheffield, photos can highlight social issues affecting the LGBT community, celebrate gender identity or just favourite things about gay life in the city. Photographs issued can be amateur or professional and will feature in the public gallery exhibition.
Photos should be emailed to lgbtphoto@sheffield.ac.uk with a short paragraph about the photo, how you feel and what it means to be LGBT in Sheffield. Deadline for submission Sunday 15th February.*
The exhibition will launch on Monday 23 February 5pm with a drinks reception and a lecture at Jessop West Exhibition Space at the University of Sheffield. The exhibition will then run until Friday 27 February 10am – 6pm.
* Contributors who submit their work must agree to the use of the photos in a public exhibition. Contributors must also have the rights to use the photographs, if taken by professional photographer content must not breach copyright rules. If the photograph is not of the contributor they must seek approval of other people in the photo and their consent for the photo to be exhibited in the event, prior to submission.
LGBT STUDIES FILM EVENT THU 4 DECEMBER
Student Union Auditorium 19:00
Join us for a FREE film event screening
Thai drama Beautiful Boxer is based on the true story of Nong Toom (Asanee Suwan),
a skilled professional Muay Thai martial artist who was determined to become the best,
not just to escape the grinding poverty of his rural upbringing, but also to fulfil a hidden
desire to undergo a sex change operation and become a woman.
Free Event – No Admission Charge
Open to the public
FREE screening of the film ‘Beautiful Boxer’ for Dr Minna Shkul’s University of Sheffield LGBT Studies module.
Thai drama Beautiful Boxer is based on the true story of Nong Toom (Asanee Suwan), a skilled professional Muay Thai martial artist who was determined to become the best, not just to escape the grinding poverty of his rural upbringing, but also to fulfill a hidden desire to undergo a sex change operation and become a woman.
It’s on Thurs 4 Dec
7pm
Student Union Auditorium at The University of Sheffield
Free Event – No Admission Charge Open to the public
Hidden Perspectives will be supporting World AIDS Day on the 1st of December with unmissable events. We will be working with the Students Stop AIDS Campaign to host the following:
Lecture by Dr Anthony Simpson (University of Manchester) on ‘Christianities, Masculinities and HIV/AIDS in Zambia’, 2-4pm
A screening of Pedro Almodovar’s ‘All About My Mother’, 7pm
Hidden Perspectives will be supporting World AIDS Day on the 1st of December with unmissable events. We will be working with the Students Stop AIDS Campaign to put on the following:
Lecture by Anthony Simpson (University of Manchester) on ‘Christianities, Masculinities and HIV/AIDS in Zambia’, 2-4pm
A screening of Pedro Almodovar’s ‘All About My Mother’, 7pm
“World AIDS Day is held on 1 December each year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day and the first one was held in 1988.” Read more on World Aids Day here.
Below is an interview with the fantastic Caroline Blyth. And for those of you who like Caroline and her research interests as much as we do… check out the details below.
On Monday 17 November, Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (SIIBS) Visiting Scholar, Dr Caroline Blyth (University of Auckland), will give ‘The Delilah Monologues’ at the SIIBS research seminar at The University of Sheffield. The paper will look at the influence of the biblical character of Delilah in contemporary popular culture. The seminar will be hosted by the Hidden Perspectives project and the paper will be followed by a drinks reception.
Jessop Exhibition Space, University of Sheffield
2-4pm
All welcome
The seminar schedule can be found at the SIIBS website.
-What will the paper you present at the HP seminar be focused on?
My paper, ‘The Delilah Monologues’ considers the biblical character of Delilah from some ‘queer’ or alternative perspectives, and questions some of the assumptions about her gender, sexuality, and ethnicity that are so often made in both biblical interpretation and her cultural afterlives. I’ve tried to do something a wee bit different in this presentation – as the title suggests, it’s written in the first person, with Delilah doing the talking. It’ll be up to me on the day to ‘channel’ her as best as I can (the audience will have to use their imagination…)
-What triggered your interest in this topic?
Back in 2011, I was asked to teach a lecture at Auckland University on Delilah in popular culture – I’ve been hooked ever since. She’s such a fascinating character and is swathed in ambiguity within the biblical text. There are so many different ways to make sense of her, so I’m intrigued as to why she is most often depicted as an exotic and deadly femme fatale and what this tells us about cultural attitudes towards female sexuality and gender expectations. Looking at Delilah queerly can open up new ways of seeing her and lets us challenge some of these toxic assumptions made about women and women’s sexuality that underlie her receptions in both biblical interpretation and popular culture.
-What current and future projects are you working on?
Lots! I’m in the process of co-editing two books – first of all, Sexuality, Ideology, and the Bible with Robert Myles, which is a collection of queer readings of the Bible from scholars in the Antipodes. I’m also editing a book, Art and the Bible: Oceanic Perspectives, with my colleague at Auckland Uni, Nasili Vaka’uta, which will be a collection of essays about (mainly contemporary) Oceanic art and artists that engage with biblical themes. Lastly, I’m working away on my Delilah book, which – like my presentation – takes a closer look at Delilah’s biblical characterisation and her ubiquitous presentations in pop culture as a femme fatale.
As to other plans, I want to develop some projects in the near future that focus on the engagements that exist between gender violence, pop culture and the Bible. It’s a topic I’ve written about before and one I keep going back to because I feel so strongly about it. I’m hoping that while I’m in Sheffield, I can get the ball rolling with this – maybe with some Hidden Perspectives help!
-Will you be in the UK again anytime soon?
I’d LOVE to come back to the UK in the not too distant future. I’m sure I will always be able to find excuses to come over, particularly as I know so many fabulous and talented biblical scholars here. And what’s wrong with mixing business with pleasure?
– Can we have a sneak preview of the lecture you’ll give on 17 November?
Yes, here’s an abstract:
Who is Delilah? How well do you know her? You may have met her in the biblical text of Judges 16, where her character is riddled with gaps and ambiguities; you may also have encountered her through her many cultural afterlives in both biblical interpretation and in literature, film, music and art, where these gaps and ambiguities are typically ‘filled out’ to present us with images of Delilah as an exotic, erotic, and deadly femme fatale. ‘The Delilah Monologues’ considers some of these afterlives and compares them with alternative, or ‘queer’ readings of her character, questioning some of the assumptions so often made about her gender, sexuality and ethnicity and offering some fresh insights into this fascinating and elusive literary persona.
Dr Caroline Blyth (University of Auckland) specialises in the areas of gender violence in the Bible and contemporary culture; Bible in popular culture – textual representations of gender, sexuality, and the female body, and the Bible in art and literature – cultural texts as modes of biblical interpretation. To stay updated with Caroline’s work, follow her on Twitter @CazBlyth
Hidden Perspectives 