Here you find all reports of the ALMS Conference 2019 submitted by those who received a bursary.
Alonso Hernández (Archivos y Memorias Diversas, Mexico)
“Senator Sawsan Chebli of Berlin […] daughter of migrants, Muslim practitioner, educated and studied, spoke in favor of diversity and the rights of LGBTI + people. [She] stressed that Berlin is a rainbow city [and] emphasized the importance of this type of meetings for historiography, archival and research of culture and history of sexual diversity.”
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André Murraças (Queervivo, Portugal)
“My presentation ended with a story of a Portuguese king and had curious reactions in the room. His name was Sebastian and he was gay. It is said this king went to an important battle, on foggy day, and never came back. We have a saying in Portugal that states that on a foggy day, someday, this king will return. I really think these 3 days together prevent all these stories we shared of disappearing into a mist.”
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B Camminga (South Africa)
“I was very pleased to see the active representation of people from the Global South. […] I especially enjoyed the willingness of some archives to talk about their methods and openness to exchange around ideas, resources and public access.”
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Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay (Canada/Scotland)
“Berlin was suffering a major heatwave, but somehow things cooled down just enough for the days of the conference, so we could all enjoy a break from the indoor sessions with lunch outside. The weather brought a sensuality to our conversations, which risked being too dry, too administrative, too theoretical. Instead we were connected to our bodies: the sun coaxing us to sweat, the breezes caressing our bodies flirtatiously.”
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Ms. Bob Davis (Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive, United States)
“It was mammoth. Simply mammoth. Queering Memory ended a week ago and I’m still trying to digest it, like swallowing an orange whole.”
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Daniel Sander (Leslie-Lohman Museum, United States)
“Though a privilege, working at a queer institution can also sometimes feel isolating. While the spaces for queers to intersect after dark are notorious (and their continued importance cannot be understated), we have less opportunities to meet and share on a professional level, especially with those from other industries and on other continents; for this, the Conference proved invaluable.”
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Dotan Brom (Haifa Queer History Project, Israel)
“I told everyone interested in my experience that it was the most moving conference in which I have ever taken part. […] The ALMS conference was a much-needed opportunity to meet others who view their research as political …”
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Ellie Armstrong (United Kingdom)
“Meeting researchers in the Twinning Cities events was also a space for reflection on collaboration, and afterwards I had wonderful conversations with researchers from Mexico, Argentina, Istanbul and Beijing over the coffee break.”
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Esra Özban (Pembe Hayat LGBTT Solidarity Association, Turkey)
“While Istanbul queers were discussing the current economic crises and its effects on queer communities in Turkey [during İstanbul Pride Week] an amazing crowd of queers from all over the world gathered in Berlin […] As Esma said in their video message, hate borders love queers!”
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Harrison Apple (Pittsburgh Queer History Project, United States)
“I have never attended such a welcoming and thoughtfully constructed event that so deftly wove together an international audience of attendees to discuss the work of oral history, archivy, art practice, and critical theories of knowledge. […] I was thrilled to be placed on a panel for the first time with other scholars working with queer elders”.
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Jannat Ali & Omer Mubbasher (Track-T, Pakistan)
“When it comes to global transgender movement, there were gaps in communication and networking with European Trans community. We met some of transgender men and women during conference exchanged contacts and shared the local dynamics of community in their perspective countries. […] The three-day conference created a number of important relationships that will stay with us forever. This conference developed a sense of camaraderie with fellows around the globe.”
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John Tubera (California Men Enjoying Nature, United States)
“To stand in the shadow of Hirschfeld’s historic legacy – one marked by destruction, struggle, and survival – has deepened my reflection on our community’s past. Throughout the conference, I was able to serve as a volunteer, as a presenter, and as an audience member. […] I felt encouraged by the ALMS community of scholars, activists, and researchers – you have inspired me to be as diligently committed to the important work we do together.”
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James Bell (United Kingdom/Scotland)
“Reading the news of attacks by extreme right-wing nationalists on an equality march in the Polish city of Bialystok, shared by queer Polish friends on Instagram and Facebook, makes my stomach drop. […] It reminds me of just how critical the work of activists who recover the erased histories queer communities is.”
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Karolina Ufa (Fundacja Q, Poland)
“Participating in any conference is always accompanied by all kinds of emotion – curiosity to learn, excitement to meet fellow academics and activists, fear of not having anything to say as discussant during the session… Traditionally, the role of participant calls for a disembodied, omniscient perspective on the conference, especially if the topic concerns history and archives. However, during ALMS Queering Memory there was room to acknowledge bodies …”
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Katja Suverina (Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow)
“Above all I had a chance to meet Elena Gusyatinskaya (who holds the biggest LGBTQ-archive in Russia). Her archive now is facing a lot of problems with systematization and digitalizing. I’ve initiated negotiations and hope that we will be able to [assist].”
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Kristina Millona (Historia Ime, Albania)
“I had the chance together with other Wikimedians from the user group called Wikimedia LGBT+, to present the work that we do in a daily basis regarding queering the content of Wikipedia in different languages […] reaching out to different librarians, archivists etc. in order to collaborate in digitizing the queer history that has been silent and lacks documentation.”
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Linda Chernis (GALA Queer Archive, South Africa)
“I was surprised (and pleased!) to see how much ALMS had grown since 2016, with Berlin ALMS having 5 sessions per time slot (I think in London there were two)! This also meant missing a lot of presentations as unfortunately we can’t be in two places at once. […] Can’t wait for the next ALMS!”
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Lois Stone (Queer Research Network Manchester, United Kingdom)
“Attending ALMS felt like what we have been trying to create in Manchester but on an international scale – an opportunity to gather as many people working with queer history in the same place as possible. At the opening of the conference, Jean Tretter referred to ALMS as a “family reunion”, and that is how the whole conference felt.”
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Maoyi Peixuan (Q-space Beijing, China)
“At the conference opening, the issue on the lack of non-white-European presenters was brought up… [In China], where LGBTQ+ and feminist organizations stay underground for safety reasons, the illegal status keeps lots of intention to work in the field strangled in the cradle. It is hard to imagine [how] a project dealing with queer history can take place in decades of conservative political climate.”
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Maria Bühner (Germany)
“Within this Garden of Eden it seemed sheerly impossible to choose one’s apples. […] I wish we would have shared more discussions on the current political developments and the urgent question of how they will affect our work in the future. Public funding might offer great possibilities, as the creation of the German Digital Women’s Archive shows, but it also makes one depend on political goodwill. […] Not only the stories an archive can tell are important, but also the ones that are not in there”.
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Orla Egan (Cork LGBT Archive, Ireland)
“ ‘We are family, and this is our family reunion.’ So it began, the 2019 ALMS LGBTQ Queering Memory Conference in Berlin. […] From the opening session there was an acknowledgment that, while it appeared that we came from all over the world, the participants were predominantly white and western. Questions were raised about whose queer memories are being prioritised and why. We were encouraged to explore the impact of colonialism and postcolonial structures on our work.”
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Rebecca Hale (Norfolk Museums Service, United Kingdom)
“The work of fellow professionals showed how the smallest of actions can make a huge difference. […] Our institutions are evidently powerful sources for change. I left feeling impassioned to continue my work on LGBTQ+, furthering it in ways I had not considered before, but learnt of at ALMS.”
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Renee Dixson (Ukraine/Australia)
“In his response to Katerina Suverina he [Jonathan D. Katz] suggested that to change the situation in Russia, people need to come out. [But] you can do more when you are alive, not dead. The methods that worked in the USA at that time might not necessarily work in a different context and time.”
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Saša Tkalec (Iskorak LGBT Centar Zagreb, Croatia)
“Excellent organization and spirit of cooperation orchestrated by the Magnus Hirschfeld Gesellschaft and partners, created the space of inclusiveness and enthusiasm… [O]ne could often hear the colleagues in between the sessions retelling each other the contents and impressions from the other session, and this has proven to be a good conversation ice breaker.”
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Veronica McKenzie (Haringey Vanguard Project, United Kingdom)
“It was an honour to present my paper ‘Whose Beloved Community’ […] The responses from the attendees demonstrated a willingness to understand and support the need to diversify archives, by supporting black queer and women’s archives generally. […] Rose Collis’s music & storytelling performance was a breathtaking personal memoir, reminding us of the powerful personal stories behind archives. She even had us singing along!”
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Viktoriya Sukovata (Kharkiv, Ukraine)
“I was happy that after the sessions I had opportunity to make new contacts with the scholars and activists from different countries… [It] was kindly that the organizing committee invited the people from the post-socialistic countries as well. The atmosphere of the conference was exceptionally friendly and tolerant! […] there were several halls for presentations, conversations, media and photography and I would like to thank the organizing team and volunteers!”
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Tonči Batalic (QueerANarchive, Split, Croatia)
“The conference was an opportunity to … connect my art/research to other invisible and erased histories, to question the visibility and accessibility of queer archives and to further think of relations of archives and the potential of ANarchival practices. […] I would say it should happen every year.”
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Yen-Jen Chen (Taiwan)
“The unforgettable memory in this summer must have been attended the ALMS conference in Berlin. This experience enlightened my horizon as to what the queer history is and how the queer memory could be [and] better equipped me to contribute more for the queer community in Taiwan in the future. […] After my presentation, a Japanese scholar had told that the situation of Japanese gay ecology is the same as that in Taiwan. […] The bright sunlight made our queer history shine stronger than before.”
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Yutaka Kubo (Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Japan)
“Being a film scholar specialized in queer film theory and practice, I have to admit that I was a bit nervous. But my anxiety was quickly eased […] I had never attended any conference where I felt as supported and encouraged while giving a presentation as ALMS Berlin turned out to be. Comments and feedback I received […] helped me reorganize a plan for a forthcoming special exhibition at our museum. Jean Tretter ended his talk in the opening ceremony: ‘We’re out there planting apple trees.’ I will keep planting apple trees.”
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Zihan Loo (Singapore)
“The heterogeneity of our praxis is really a strength of the conference. The smaller Café Global sessions where we listened to presenters share their work in a speed-dating format was particularly memorable. There was this visceral transmission of each presenter’s passion that was potently communicated with five or six individuals seated around a table. […] the splicing of video screenings and artworks amidst the dense academic or theoretical conversations helped to ground the conversations.”
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Zrinka Kolarić (L’egzistencija, Croatia)
“Everything was so interesting and well organized it turned out that the most difficult thing during the conference was to decide which panel to attend. […] Being surrounded by so many queer people from around the world, supporting each other, feeling completely normal and accepted… It felt like a kind of an escapist retreat – the one from which you don’t go ‘back to reality’ feeling low, but full of ideas, will and enthusiasm!”
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