SGS events
Forthcoming:
Acronym Trouble: LGBTQIA+ Research Day on Friday the 17th July in person in 33/34 MS 01 10am-4pm, followed by a drinks reception.
We will be thinking about how we can best do inclusive, community-focused research, emphasising both solidarity and the different needs of different communities? We want to think together, and explore the potentials and the pitfalls, the opportunities and challenges, of acronym thinking.
Visiting IAS Fellow Marta Prandelli and David Griffiths will be talking about the "I" in LGBTQIA+, and the limits of inclusion. We will be welcoming Yasmin Benoit, who will talk about asexuality discrimination, Ellen Davenport-Pleasance who will talk about how bisexuality can get lost in LGBTQ+ research, and Katherine Hubbard and Amy Tooth Murphy who will talk about butch sex. There will be plenty of time for discussions, and then we will also be launching the new Queer Studies: The Basics book by Katherine and David, over a glass of wine!
Food and drink will be provided all day, and the event is free, but registration is required. Please register here.
Sponsored by the University's Institute of Advanced Studies and the Sex, Gender and Sexualities Research Centre.
If you have any questions, email David on d.a.griffiths@surrey.ac.uk
2025-6 Events:
SGS Workshop Tue 5/26/2026 3:00 PM - 4:50 PM 31MS01 or via TEAMS
Computing Gender: Digital Humanities and Feminist Literary History with Professor Katherine Binhammer, (University of Alberta and University of Surrey Visiting Professor) held on Thursday 7 May, 4-6pm
The Weird World of Neopronouns with Dr Lena Mattheis held on Tuesday 24 February 4-5pm
- Wrestling as Performative Spectacle with Saher Bano held on Wednesday 18 February from 2.30pm. This event featured a screening of Signature Move, followed by a short presentation by Saher Bano, Commonwealth Split Site Scholar in SAHCI and member of SGS, on the film's context, themes and representational politics.
LGBTQIA+ Studies and Intersex: an SGS interdisciplinary conversation with Dr Marta Prandelli (Dublin City University and IAS visiting fellow)
In October and November, SGS members leador were involved in a number of events as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science and the AHRC Being Human Festival.
These included:
Tackling harmful sexual behaviour in schools: Implementing evidence-based practice for safeguarding leads Wed 22 Oct 2025 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM online
Transforming Food in Women's Prisons Wed 22 Oct 2025 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM at The Guildford Institute, GU1 4LH
Explore, Express, Empower: Zine-Making Workshop on Women’s Work Experiences Thu 6 Nov 2025 6:00 PM - 8:30 PMThe Guildford Institute, GU1 4LH
Transgressing Lines: Decoding queer fashion history Sat 8 Nov 2025 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM at New House Arts Space, GU1 4SQ
2024-5 Events:
An informal interdisciplinary discussion of the theme of 'Gender & Gender Identities' was held on Wednesday 4 June.
Art Exhibition Launch Event - Celebrating our past, creating our future May 30 · 7 - 9pm, New House Art Space & Gallery, Guildford. Organized by Blossom LGBT CIC and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, this exhibition included a recent collaboration with Pride in Nature, a series of workshops in association with research from the University or Surrey exploring queer connections to nature. Featuring work by LGBTQIA+ artists, it also included MY QUEER TRUTH: AN EXHIBITION OF ZINES by SGS's Teresa Pilgrim. Exhibition dates were Saturday 31st May – End of June.
SGS's Lena Mattheis at thee Pint of Science "From Thou to You: The Evolution of Pronouns" Held on Wednesday, 21 May, 7pm, The Star (Guildford)
International Women's Day Research Showcase: SGS Intersectional Feminist Research on Wednesday 19 March.
Saher Bano, '“Third World, Lesbian Caliban” and “The Second Women”: Towards a queer intersectional hermeneutics'
Anthea Benjamin, 'Intersectional experience of Black women and experiences of racisms within therapy trainings'
Chigozirim Miracle Nwaosu, 'Rethinking the Category of Woman in Troy Onyango’s "The Transfiguration" (2016)'
Beth Roberts, 'White Femininity as Self-Victimisation: Escaping Retribution in the Boy Parts novel (2020) and play (2023)'
Sarah Wingrove, 'Contextualising 'curiosity': Recent efforts to recover Eliza Raine (1791-1860)
Landmarking Guildford's Queer History This event held on Sat 9 Nov 2024 took participants on an immersive audio treasure hunt to meet your LGBTQIA+ elders. This University of Surrey event was part of Being Human Festival.
Understanding risk in commercial sex markets: The case of men who visit full-service sex workers with Dr Giulia Berlusconi on Friday 1 Nov 2024 online.
'The Day of the Princess': Contemporary Understandings of the Disney Princess Phenomenon Symposium was held on Wednesday 16th October 2024 (Hybrid)
The Medieval Research Group in collaboration with SGS hosted a research seminar with visiting PhD student Hannah Victoria Johnson (Sorbonne) "Queer Studies and Cognitive Linguistics: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Reading Twelfth and Thirteenth Century Mystical Texts" on Tuesday 30 July (hybrid).
2023-4 Events:
SGS Research Showcase: A Historical Journey in Sex, Gender, and Sexuality Research on Wednesday, February 21 2024, co-hosted by Oscar Hoyle from LGBT Blossom.
Programme:2.00. Teresa Pilgrim - Female masculinities and the environment in early mediaeval texts, 700-1000
2.15. Lena Mattheis - Queer pronoun use in literature
2.30. Katherine Hubbard - History of aversion therapy/queer feminist history in psychology
2.45. Chigozirim Miracle Nwaosu - Afro-queerness and migration in Helon Habila's Travellers and Jude Dibia's Walking with Shadows
3.00. Fabio Fasoli – Voice-based intersectionality, the case of nationality and sexual orientation
3.15. Oscar Hoyle - LGBT Blossom
3.30. David Griffiths - Intersex storytelling
3.45. Giulia Berlusconi - Men who pay for sexual services in England & Wales
4.00. final remarks