Organised by Jochem Kahl, Research Area 2: "Travelling Matters".

The lecture will discuss how research on same-sex desire in ancient Egyptian literature, exploring the possibilities of a 'queer philology', contributed to a wider project on LGBTQ history. It will illustrate the gradual evolution of a ground-breaking LGBT history project at the British Museum in a variety of formats, including A Little Gay History (2013) and subsequent exhibitions and trails. It will discuss how LGBT histories and heritage can best be displayed - as temporary interventions or as integrated parts of permanent displays - and consider the role of an academic historian in shaping and presenting such heritage.

Richard B. Parkinson was trained at Oxford and was Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellow at University College, Oxford 1990-91. He was a curator of the papyrus collection in the Department of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum 1992-2013 (where projects included the display of the Rosetta Stone and the Nebamun wall-paintings). He is currently statutory professor of Egyptology at Oxford and a fellow of The Queen’s College, Oxford.

Advance registration is not required.