You are invited to a public lecture by Chris Ashford, Professor of Law and Society at Northumbria University, and Gareth Longstaff, Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Theory at Newcastle University. This event will be the second in a speaker series entitled 'Critical Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality and Society' hosted by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University. It also forms part of the University's programme of events for LGBTQ+ History Month:
Summary:
On 26 February 1994 an arson attack at the Dream City Porn Cinema in Clerkenwell, London resulted in the deaths of 11 men and 13 non-fatal injuries. The fire would have a significant legacy impacting both London’s queer legal and regulatory environment and culture. The unlicensed pornographic cinema venue was frequented by men who had sex with men and the fire marked not only the end of eleven lives but has been seen as marking the end of these kinds of venues in London, and indeed the UK. As such, the incident – now marking its thirtieth anniversary – can be viewed as both a landmark legal and cultural moment that speaks to the contours and legacies of how we situate queer and gay desire, loss, (in)visibility and shame.
The fire took place a week after the then latest attempt to equalise the age of consent failed. That would take another six years to successfully be passed. 1994 also falls before the legal and cultural shifts of the late 1990s but at a time when attempts were being made for change. The men of the Clerkenwell fire were arguably inconvenient reminders of a more complex, shamed and culturally maligned queer existence whose lives have largely been overlooked. This has created both a compelling and stark narrative that we argue work to pivot and inform how we situate queer legal and cultural change in 2024. This paper, drawing on original archival research, seeks to restore their place in our queer history and in exploring and understanding this major criminal incident, we can arguably gain new insights into subsequent legal and cultural change.
Speakers:
Chris Ashford is Professor of Law and Society at Northumbria University. He is a queer theorist with an interest in the regulation of queer sex by law. His work has previously considered the phenomena of public sex, sex work, and bareback sex and has often intersected with themes of technology. More recently his collaborative work with Longstaff has explored queer law and culture to consider sex in pandemics, theoretical constructions of the phallus in law and culture and alt constructions of the self. He is currently the Editor of The Law Teacher, chaired the 2023 QAA Law Subject Benchmark Statement, and was a law sub-panel member in REF2021.
Gareth Longstaff is a senior lecturer in media and cultural theory and faculty director of EDI at Newcastle University. He is a queer scholar interested in the contours of how sexual and social desires connect with pornography, celebrity and the socially networked self. He is widely published on these issues and with Ashford has developed a queer ‘cultural-legal’ framework and axis of how sex between men is aligned to the shifting contexts and potentials of queer promiscuity, consent, and affirmation. He explores this in both contemporary and historical archives and has used this to position the concepts of queer mundanity, ephemera and objecthood. His forthcoming 2024 book Celebrity and Pornography (Bloomsbury) captures much of this in its examination of social and digital media, queer culture, psychoanalysis, and self-representation and how these paradigms are connected to our visual, cultural, and social experiences.
Following Chris and Gareth's public lecture there will be an opportunity for further discussion, questions and answers, and refreshments. If you would like to submit a question in advance, please email this to the event organiser, Dr Max Morris: maxmorris@brookes.ac.uk
