Thomas Dowson (visiting from Sept 2011)
We are pleased to announce that
Thomas Dowson is joining Queer@King’s as a Visiting Research Fellow in September 2011. Thomas is an Independent Scholar, who formerly held posts at the Universities of Manchester and Southampton, as well as the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. An archaeologist by training, with a particular interest in prehistoric rock arts (a field in which he has published widely), Thomas’s research also centres on the value of queer theory for our understanding of the past and how it is constructed in the present. For some, ‘queering archaeology’ is concerned with identifying homosexuality in prehistoric and ancient communities. In a series of publications (including a special issue of the journal
World Archaeology in 2000 and an essay in the
Ashgate Research Companion to Queer Theory in 2009), Thomas has suggested that ‘queer archaeology’ is more profound than this, and that it should challenge all forms of heteronormative disciplinary practice.
During his year attached to Queer@KIng’s, Thomas will pursue a project entitled ‘Queerying the Pasts of Different Disciplinary Cultures’, which aims to examine the ways in which heteronormative privilege is established and maintained in different disciplinary cultures. This comparative critique will extend beyond the field of archaeology to compare and contrast what ‘queering the past’ entails for different academic disciplines with an interest in the past.
If you are interested in joining Queer@King’s as a visiting scholar (non-stipendiary), please contact the Director, Robert Mills, on the queer@king's email.