Academics to discuss gay identites in eastern Europe

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a pink background.

A conference to be held in London is to examine the emergence of LGBT identities in central and eastern Europe.

School of Slavonic and East European Studies at Universtiy College London is to hold a one-day conference on Friday 11th April.

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 new gay communities have emerged in many countries, and led to social and political unrest regarding their rights and visibility.

The conference will “examine the intersection of gender and nation as formative concepts for sexualities.

“The scarcity of scholarly work concentrating on this region, in queer theory, in studies of gay and lesbian experience in the past and present, and in the sexual politics of the marginalised.”

LGBT rights have become a major political issue in countries such as Poland, Latvia, Russia, Romania and Slovakia.

“The emergence of sexualities studies for Central-Eastern Europe challenges canonica, theoretical and interpretive frameworks grounded in North American and Western European contexts.,” UCL said in a press release.

For more information visit their website.