Queer History Club: Reading for Queerness in Seventeenth-Century Sources

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Reading for Queerness in Seventeenth-Century Sources: Talk and Workshop

How do we interpret the language that Renaissance people used to describe queerness, when their terms for sexual preferences or acts are highly ambiguous and do not match modern identity categories?

Historians James Hobbes and Scarlett Stevens (University of York) will share their thoughts - including why focusing on high-status men, like Netflix faves James VI/I and George Villiers, can be limiting - and lead a workshop on developing your ‘queer eye’ for history. Using the concept of ‘queer potentiality’, we’ll explore meaningful ways to engage with seventeenth-century individuals and queerness beyond labels, and discover queer angles to historical sources that we might never have spotted before.

Scarlett Stevens and James Hobbes are PhD students at the University of York. James is interested in the seventeenth-century political imagination; his thesis focuses on the role of poison, witchcraft, and sexual scandal in depictions of seventeenth-century court favourites. Scarlett is interested in queer, gender and reading histories; her thesis considers the erotic and pleasure-inducing potential of reading in the 17th century.

Kit Heyam is a Leeds-based heritage practitioner, trans awareness trainer, academic and author of Before We Were Trans.

Date: Wednesday 1st July 2026
Time: 7-9pm
Venue: The Bookish Type, 77a Great George Street, LS1 3BR

Tickets are on a sliding scale (£8 /£5 / £3 / £0)

Please be honest about your financial situation when selecting what to pay for your ticket. If you purchase a ticket at the lowest end of the scale when you could afford the higher ticket prices, it makes it harder for us to provide financial flexibility to those who most need it.

£8 "I have more than enough to comfortably meet my basic financial needs and can afford to contribute a little extra to support access for others."
£5 "I am comfortably able to meet all of my basic financial needs."
£3 "I may stress about meeting my basic financial needs but still regularly achieve them."
£0 "I have no disposable income to afford the event"

Tickets are only refundable up to 7 days before the event starts. Please email to cancel.

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Access Info

The shop has an 8cm step but we have a ramp we can put in place if required.
There is a downstairs bathroom with toilet and hand basin.
There is a range of seating including chairs that are armless with padded seats and backs, armless sofa, bench with cushions.
Face masks are encouraged but not required; an H13 HEPA air purifier will be in use.
On street parking available (charges may apply).
Please email in advance if you have any specific access needs: thebookishtypeleeds@gmail.com

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