About | ROLES Birmingham

ABOUT ROLES

Welcome to the ROLES Sexuality and Gender Studies Network. We are a community of postgraduate researchers based at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Our mission is to bring together people who explore aspects of sexuality and/or gender in their research and activism with one another, join in conversations, and showcase research. Our approach is intersectional, interdisciplinary and inclusive.

Each academic year, we aim to run themed discussion forums (online as well as in person), screening events and our annual conference. We are also launching a blog space in the near future.

We have previously collaborated with colleagues in Budapest and we hope to be able to widen our network and continue our collaboration with colleagues in Birmingham and beyond for years to come. We are proud that our events continue to showcase PhD work on sexuality and gender studies from all over the world.

We are supported by the School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music at The University of Birmingham, and the world-class, interdisciplinary team of teaching staff who research and teach sexuality and gender studies. These colleagues also supervise the wide range of research projects undertaken by our organisers and many of our contributors.

MEET THE TEAM

Convenor

Rebecca Humphreys-Lamford

Rebecca (she/her) is a PhD student at the University of Birmingham, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through Midlands4Cities. Her research interests surround queer studies and queer representation, with a focus on asexuality. Her previous research has explored how asexuality has been represented on British television, questioning how asexuality emerged on screen, and what (mis)understandings can be learnt from these representations. Her current research builds on this, aiming to be the first empirical study of asexual audience perspectives to explore the direct impact asexual representations have on the asexual community.

WhatsApp Image 2024-01-31 at 11_edited.jpg

Convenor

Kinga Erzepki

Kinga (she/her) is a PhD student in Sexuality and Gender Studies at the University of Birmingham, funded by The Wolfson Foundation Scholarship. Her thesis project involves dissecting piece by piece the construction of non-binary characters in mainstream American television series. Her MA research on the topic has been published in Jump Cut journal. Kinga’s interests also include the depictions of sexual taboos and the theory of screen characters. Otherwise: an Americanist, public speaker, and dirty debater. With ROLES, Kinga hopes to push the boundaries of discussions deemed ‘acceptable’ both in academia and public discourse.

Convenor

Billy Wassell

Billy (they/them) is currently studying on the MRes Sexuality and Gender course at the University of Birmingham. Their thesis is looking to explore how young, queer activists feel and manage their emotions during grassroots organising and participating in protests. Their undergraduate research - a study highlighting the workplace discrimination of LGBTQ+ ecologists - was the first empirical study of its kind and was presented at two prestigious academic conferences. Billy is an active environmental and social justice campaigner.

ROLES ALUMNI

Editor 2021-23

Andy Irwin

Andy (he/him) re-founded ROLES in 2021 after a two-year hiatus for the Network. Formerly on the Sexuality & Gender Studies MRes at The University of Birmingham, he is now a first-year PhD researcher funded by the AHRC (Midlands4Cities). His primary interests lie in contemporary anglophone literature, queer literary representation, and the uses of queer theory in the practice of social justice activism. Andy’s thesis examines the possibilities for (and challenges with) finding optimism in twenty-first century fiction by gay men in the United States; it also explores the ways in which intersectionality might both enhance and disrupt optimistic readings. Andy’s research is driven by an enduring hope that centring non-normative ways of living and being in the world has the potential to disrupt systems of inequality.

Andy has published on 'subversive masculinities' in the literature journal Ad Alta.

Convenor 2021-23

Vanesa Medina Godoy

Vanesa (she/her) is a postgraduate research student at the University of Birmingham working towards an MRes in History of Art. She is interested in decolonial approaches to gender and sexuality in art historical research, with a particular emphasis on intersectional politics in contemporary visual practice. Her current research explores the role of cultural heritage and Andean history in cuir/queer art and activism from Peru.

Vanesa has published on visual activism and postcolonial histories of gender and sexuality in the journal Global Histories.

Convenor 2021-22

Natalie Connor

Natalie (she/her) studies as a part-time student enrolled on the MRes in Sexuality and Gender Studies at the University of Birmingham. She studies this alongside her role as an Assistant Manager at Explore Learning, Wylde Green. Her current research centres around Hispanic and Portuguese studies and explores cinematic representations of masculinity and the repression of femininity and sexuality in the post-colonial and Marxist states of Cuba and Mozambique. She is also interested in the intersection of gender, race, sexuality and language, as well as decolonising academic spaces.