Assist. Prof. Jasmina Šepetavc from the Department of Cultural Studies is the recipient of the prestigious ERC Starting Grant
The Center for Cultural and Religious Studies will host a five-year European project on memory activism in LGBTQI+ communities in Southeastern and Eastern Europe
Assistant Professor Jasmina Šepetavc, PhD, researcher at the Center for Cultural and Religious Studies (CCRS) and lecturer at the Department of Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, is the recipient of the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant project.
The QEAST project explores the memory activism and cultural heritage of LGBTIQ+ communities in Southeast and Eastern Europe, which have been particularly overlooked internationally to date. Through an analysis of regional self-organised archives and festivals, the project sheds light on how queer communities have been erased from official histories, yet have persistently developed their own forms of memory activism and memory infrastructure. In the context of a new wave of anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives in global and local politics, which often portray queerness as a newly invented and imported phenomenon, understanding memory activism for inscribing minority stories into local collective memory and fighting against erasure is all the more important.
Through a combination of archival research and ethnography, QEAST will map and analyze the strategies of memory pioneers during socialism and contemporary memory projects of LGBTQ+ archival networks and festivals in the region throughout the duration of the project. The aim of the project is to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the dynamics of the production, transmission, and political uses of queer memory. The project moves away from Western-centric understandings of LGBTQ+ communities in Southeast and Eastern Europe by revealing alternative regional LGBTQ+ activist histories, forms of activism, and theoretical production.
This research approach not only brings new knowledge about the LGBTQ+ histories of Europe, but also opens up a broader understanding of the preservation of the heritage of other minority communities. In doing so, the project contributes to the development of more inclusive and diverse perspectives on collective memory frameworks and cultural heritage, while strengthening the international visibility of research that connects science with issues of social justice and memory.
The acquisition of funding for the extensive, five-year QEAST project is the latest achievement of the CCRS and represents a valuable contribution to the expansion of the regional cultural research platform that the Centre has been developing within the framework of national program and project funding and other international projects in the fields of cultural and memory studies.