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School of History

Dr Victoria Golding

Victoria

Postdoctoral Research Assistant

Email: v.golding@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

I am a social historian of twentieth century queer Britain. I completed my AHRC-funded PhD at the University of Sussex in 2022, and joined the School of History at Queen Mary in January 2022 as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant. My research analyses themes of queer space, queer community and the representation of lesbian emotional experience in 1980s and 1990s Britain.

Research

Research Interests:

My doctoral thesis historicises the relationship between space, sexuality and community in twentieth century Britain through an exploration of lesbian emotional experience. It uses twenty-seven original oral histories, and archival material, to examine the internal migration experiences of lesbians moving to Todmorden, and later Hebden Bridge, from 1981 onwards. Encompassing the lesbian feminist networks of Greenham Common, squatting in Hackney and the manual trades initiatives of the Greater London Council, it traces the formation of a lesbian community in a small rural town. Examining changes to this community over time serves as a lens through which to explore changing lesbian identity through the 1980s and 1990s, and how conceptualisations of lesbian belonging have changed in relationship to 21st century sexual politics. My chapter in 'New Directions In Queer Oral History' argues for a queerer understanding of discomposure, working with the testimony of an interviewee moving between butch lesbian and transmasculine subject categories. I am interested in how queer experience has been represented in historical sources, and am a member of the Oral History Society’s LGBTQ Special Interest Group. At Queen Mary, I am working with Professor Matthew Hilton researching the history of twentieth-century British humanitarianism.

Publications

  • Victoria Golding ‘Beyond Composure and Discomposure in a Shifting Queer Identity Narrative’ in Clare Summerskill, Amy Tooth Murphy and Emma Vickers (eds.) New Directions in Queer Oral History: Archives of Disruption (Routledge, forthcoming Spring 2022).
  • Victoria Golding ‘Book Review: Semi Queer: Inside the World of Gay, Trans and Black Truck Drivers by Anne Balay’ Oral History (2020) 48 (1) pp.122-123.
  • Victoria Golding ‘Don’t They Know How Lucky They Are?’ Diva Magazine article for LGBTQ History Month Diva Issue 272 (February 2019) pp.74-77.
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