‘Moments of Identification’: LGBTQ+ History and Heritage – Professor Richard Parkinson, University of Oxford (Classics seminar series)

Professor Parkinson’s lecture will illustrate the gradual evolution of an LGBT history project at the British Museum in a variety of formats, including A Little Gay History (2013) and subsequent exhibitions and trails. It will question how LGBT histories are best displayed – as temporary interventions or as integrated parts of permanent displays – and consider the role of an ancient historian in shaping and presenting this heritage.

Richard Bruce Parkinson is a British academic. He is currently Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford and a fellow of The Queen’s College, Oxford. He was previously a curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, British Museum. His main area of research in the interpretation and performance of Ancient Egyptian poetry of the classic period. As well as academic monographs and articles, he has written popular books on Egyptology. Drawing on his work on the ‘subaltern’ aspects of ancient literature, he has published on LGBTQ+ history across world cultures, including A Little Gay History (2013), dedicated to his husband. He recently acted as consultant to No Offence: Exploring LGBTQ+ Histories, The British Museum’s touring exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, which ran until December 2018.