‘Visualising the Lives of LGBTIQ Roma’ is presented by Dr Lucie Fremlova, Senior Research Associate at the University of Portsmouth and former University of Brighton PhD student, as part of the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership between the two universities.
Dr Fremlova’s talk and accompanying exhibition is open to the public and takes place at Dorset Place 501 from 4pm to 5.50pm on Wednesday 20 November. It is hosted by the university’s Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender.
Dr Fremlova will draw on the findings of her research project, which entails self-representations of LGBTQ Roma including photographs and videos produced by LGBTIQ research participants who are also visual activists and artists.
Looking ahead to the event, Dr Fremlova said: “The lived experiences and images of LGBTIQ Roma remain invisible to many people, Roma and non-Roma alike. Simultaneously, LGBTIQ Roma are the subject of a plethora of anti-Romani, homophobic, transphobic and other stereotypes.
“By showcasing photographs by LGBTIQ Roma research participants, the exhibition not only offers an insight into the lives of LGBTIQ Roma; it also seeks to demonstrate to various audiences ways in which LGBTIQ Roma wish to be represented.”
Dr Fremlova added that the outcomes of her research project “speak to current societal issues that have particular traction in pre-election, Brexit Britain, as well as within European societies such as diversity, equality, tolerance, identity politics, representation and participation within Europe’s ever-changing political landscapes”.