UPCOMING EVENTS
2026
Symposium: Exploring Queerness in Natural History, Linnean Society, 5 February 2026
PAST EVENTS (SELECTED)
2025
Yuki Kahara in Conversation with Tamsin Hong and Ross Brooks, The Whitworth, University of Manchester, 11 December 2025
‘Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life,’ Biology LGBTQ+ Journal Club, University of Oxford, 2 December 2025
‘Queer Planet: The Amazing Adventures of Bi-Curious George,’ (pre-show demonstrator), Oxford University Museum of Natural History, 3 May 2025
2024
‘Wolfenden’s Biologists,’ National Archives Extended Virtual Research Hub: Dykes, Biologists & Booksellers: Queer History and Creative Practices from the Past to the Future, 6 February 2024
‘Darwin’s Closet and the Making of Queer Zoology,’ Open University STEMinar, 14 February 2024
2023
‘Sexual Selections: The Unmaking and Making of Queer Biology,’ Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, University of Bristol, 17 November 2023
‘Sex Changed by Science’: F. A. E. Crew and Concepts of Sex Reversal in Interwar Britain,’ Northeast Conference on British Studies Annual Meeting, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 14 October 2023
‘“We will have this cut out”: The Making and Unmaking of Queer Zoology,’ Seminars in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, joint event with the LGBTQ+ History Faculty Network, University of Oxford, 5 May 2023
‘The Making of Queer Zoology,’ LGBTQ+ STEM Network, UCL, 8 March
‘Queer Oxford Revisited,’ Jesus College, Oxford, 10 February 2023
2022
‘Queer Zoology since Aristotle,’ Linnean Society, 22 February 2022
Sexuality & STEM in the Past & Present: An LGBT History Month Event. University of Birmingham, 9 February 2022
2021
‘Towards the New Normal: Repudiating Medico-Scientific Models of Homosexuality in Postwar Britain,’ Science and its Enemies: Exploring Conflicts and Alliances in the History of Science, 2nd ESHS Early Career Scholars Conference, European Society for the History of Science, 20-22 September 2021
‘Darwin’s Closet,’ Revisiting Darwin’s Descent (plenary panel), International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, 13-20 July 2021
‘“How devastating is Truth!”: Thomas Haining Gillespie’s Queer Penguins,’ Pride in STEM, LGBTQ+ History Month Virtual Event, 22 February 2021
‘Darwin’s Closet,’ LGBTQ+ Lunchtime Showcase. Oxford Brookes University, 16 February 2021
‘A Little Queer History of Oxford,’ Christ Church, University of Oxford, 11 February 2021
‘Darwin, Descent, and “Hideous Sexual Criminality,”’ University of Oxford Biology Department, 3 February 2021
‘Darwin’s Closet,’ LGBTQ+ STEMinar, hosted by University of Oxford, 8 January 2021
2020
‘Do the History You Want to Do: Studying Queer History at Oxford Brookes,’ Guest lecture for Oxford Brookes University History Society, 1 October 2020
‘Edmund Selous’s Queer Birds and the Transmutation of the Sexes in Edwardian Ethology,’ Environmental History Workshop, 8 September 2020
‘Queer Oxford in the Twenties,’ Sexpression:UK, General Assembly, 14-15 March 2020
‘Expressions of Queer Love Through the Ages,’ The Power of Love: A Valentine’s Day Celebration, Think Human Festival, Oxford Brookes University, 14 February 2020
‘No Lustmord Please, We’re British! The Whitechapel Murders and the Initial Reception of Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia sexualis (1886) in Britain,’ BSHS Twitter Conference, 12 February 2020
2019
‘Edmund Selous’s Queer Birds,’ EML/HPC Winter Symposium, Oxford Brookes University, 30 November 2019
‘Darwin’s Queer Plots: Sex beyond Selection in The Descent of Man (1871)’ (LSE Narrative Science panel), HSTM Network Ireland annual conference, Ulster University, Belfast campus, 18 October 2019
‘Queer Birds – II: Transforming Sexuality in Edwardian Britain’ (poster), HSS Research Conference 2019: Borders and Transformations, Oxford Brookes University, 9 September 2019
‘Unresolved Conflicts about Sex: Julian Huxley and the Progress of Sexology in Britain, 1916-1930,’ History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 24 July 2019
‘Queer Birds – II: Sexual Transitions in Edwardian Britain,’ Narrative Science in Techno-Environments, LSE, 19 July 2019
‘Darwin’s Closet: Sex beyond Selection in The Descent of Man (1871),’ Sex and Nature: 1800-2018 conference, University of Exeter, 10 June 2019
‘Beyond Brideshead: Queer Oxford, 1919-1945,’ public lecture, Ashmolean Museum, 31 May 2019
‘A Little Queer Learning: Oxford and the Brideshead Generation,’ Histories of Queer Cosmopolitanism, Ertegun House, University of Oxford, 20 May 2019
‘So Much in the Shadows: The Homoerotics of 1920s Oxford,’ Queer Modernism(s) III, University of Oxford, 25–26 April 2019
‘Evolution’s Closet: Queering the History of Natural History,’ Out Thinkers (Pride in STEM), hosted by Institute of Cancer Research, London, 28 February 2019
‘Blackmail, Biology, and Activism: The Making of the Wolfenden Report (1957),’ Event convened by Oxford Human Rights and Oxford Brookes LGBTQ+ Staff Forum for the 17th Oxford Human Rights Festival. Glass Tank, Oxford Brookes, 14 March 2019
‘Queering the History of Biology,’ Queering the History of Science: A Lunchtime Lecture on Narrative, Science, and Nonconformity. LSE / Spectrum / Narrative Science project. LSE, 21 February 2019
‘Blackmail, Biology, and Homosexual Law Reform in Postwar Britain,’ Modern British History Graduate Workshop, University of Cambridge, 14 February 2019
‘A More Objective Approach? The Science of the Wolfenden Report (1957),’ CHSTM PhDs Seminar Series, University of Manchester, 5 February 2019
‘No Lustmord Please, We’re British! The Whitechapel Murders and the Reception of Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia sexualis (1886) in Britain,’ HPC ‘Borders’ research conference, Oxford Brookes, 23 January 2019
2018
‘Unresolved Conflicts about Sex: Julian Huxley and the Progress of Sexology in Britain, 1916–1930,’ Centre for Medical Humanities seminar series, University of Exeter, 13 December 2018
‘In or Out? Evolution, Homosexuality, and the Scientific Publications of the University Press, 1897-1901,’ Royal Holloway Research Seminar, Senate House, London, 5 December 2018
‘Secret History/Secret Science: Exploring LGBTQ+ Histories of Evolutionary Biology and Eugenics,’ Ways of Knowing in (and about) Modern Britain PG/ECR Conference, University of Birmingham, 5–6 July 2018
Tea and a 3-Minute PhD, Think Human Festival, Oxford Brookes University, 22 May 2018
‘Beyond Brideshead: The Homoerotics of 1930s Oxford in the Photographs of Cyril Arapoff (1898–1976),’ Party at the Pitt: An LGBT History Month Celebration, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 25 February 2018
2017
‘Beyond Brideshead: The Homoerotics of 1930s Oxford in the Photographs of Cyril Arapoff (1898–1976),’ Queer Localities: An International Conference, Birkbeck, University of London, 31 November-1 December 2017.
Co-presentation with Chancellor of Oxford Brookes, Dame Katherine Grainger, on the University’s Scholarship Scheme. Annual Honorary Graduate event, 17 October 2017
‘Towards Wolfenden: Medico-Scientific Approaches to Homosexual Law Reform in Britain, 1946–1954,’ Postgraduate Medical Humanities Conference, University of Exeter, 29–30 June 2017
Dr Ross Brooks (he/him) 