INTRO TO CLUB CULTURAL STUDIES: QUEER CONTEXTS
with Dr Justin Hunt
Course Structure: 4 × 2 hour zoom seminars
Course Venue: Online
Course Dates: TBC
Course Fee: £100
This course has run annually from 2021.
This course explores the social, cultural, and political significance of nightlife in London from the early 20th century to the present. Through academic scholarship, policy documents, films, documentaries, and journalism, learners will examine how nightlife spaces shape — and are shaped by — issues of class, race, gender, sexuality, urban change, governance, and cultural memory.
Focussing on queer contexts, this course balances cultural theory with queer commentary, theory, and criticism exploring the dimension of exclusion that profits queer life worlds and/or further margianalises queer experience.
This course is for:
LGBTQIA+ individuals or allies who are intersted in cultural theory and its intersections with club/nightlife/rave cultures
LGBTQIA+ or ally nightlife promoters, party goers, performers, security guards, bar backs, sex workers, etc.
Individuals looking for an accessible academic introduction to club cultural studies
By then end of this course you will be able to:
Identify and explain the key historical developments in London’s queer nightlife, from music halls and sound systems, to raves, clubs, and festivals.
Critically analyse nightlife cultures using concepts from cultural studies, urban studies, sociology, queer theory, and policy research (e.g. subculture, urban playscapes, festivalization, governance).
Evaluate how nightlife is shaped by intersections of class, race, gender, sexuality, and migration, and how these dynamics manifest in London’s venues and events.
Compare and interpret representations of nightlife across multiple media forms (documentary film, journalism, oral histories, photography, and academic writing).
Dr Justin Hunt is an artist, educator, and researcher based in London. He is a Research Fellow at the Open University, Adjunct Professor at Ithaca College London, and is curating producer for Queer Extension, I’m With You, and Naked Boys Reading. He has over 20 years experience as an educator in the USA and UK.
His research explores archives of queerness especially as they relate to performacne and nightlife. This course was developed across 8 years of teaching at Syracuse University, London.
Images:
1) Lead Image: Koas, Zbigniew Kotkiewicz
2) Secondary Image: Cheryl, Christa Holka, 2012
3) Bio Image: Christa Holka