Queer Archives & Memory:
Who Gets to Tell Our Stories?
with Dr Charlotte Cooper
Course Structure: 1 × 1 hour 1:1 session with Dr Cooper
Course Venue: 33 Archive, Stratford E15
Course Dates: July - April 2026
Course Fee: £20
This course examines how we might preserve and share our own queer histories. It explores ideas around who gets to have a history, what gets recorded and how; we will consider institutions where these archives might be safely held.
Why should this matter to you?
This is a historical moment where the world is on fire under fascism; queers are vulnerable to erasure. Even with the best intentions, we risk institutional appropriation with our stories being stolen, transformed and flattened. Intergenerational alienation leaves us open to cultural amnesia. We must ensure this does not happen through careful consideration of how we make and disseminate our own histories.
The course is limited to 4 participants, upon application. If selected, you will be invited into 33 Archive for a 1-hour conversational session. The conversation will be unstructured, you will be able to look at materials and discuss whatever arises.
This course is for:
LGBTQIA+ individuals with an interest in archives
LGBTQIA+ individuals interested in intergenerational exchange
33Archive is Charlotte’s own archive of DIY culture, fat activism, queer, trans and poly lives in East London. It contains her life’s work as well as personal papers, documents, correspondence, artwork, photographs, objects and audio-visual material.
The archive represents the following core interests:
DIY tactics for making and preserving histories
Talking and listening as methods for radical world-making
Belonging and community
The politics of knowledge production and ownership, considering who and what gets remembered, and why
The sociology of queer, fat lives
Charlotte’s ageing self and life stories
Charlotte’s psychotherapy practice is rooted in radical and feminist traditions, where learning is co-created through dialogue. In Pedagogy of The Oppressed, Paolo Friere argues that an education of liberation is where people come together both as teachers and students of each other.
With this in mind, Charlotte would like to invite four people into her archive for a one-hour conversation. The conversation will be unstructured, we can look at materials together and discuss whatever arises.
Dr Charlotte Cooper is a psychotherapist working in East London. She is a cultural worker influenced by DIY ethics and aesthetics. She publishes books through her imprint 33editions and performs as Homosexual Death Drive.
Charlotte is known for her work fat, which has been influential over the last 30 years.
Images:
1) Lead Image: 33 Archive, Charlotte Cooper
2) Secondary Image: 33 Archive, Charlotte Cooper
3) Bio Image: Charlotte Cooper by Christa Holka
Applications to this course are open either by filling in the form to the right, or via email.
If you prefer you can submit your application via email as a text or video submission. You can also submit questions via email.
Required Information:
Preferred Name
Preferred Pronouns
Email Address & Phone Number
A short narrative that:
Introduces you (100-200 words)
Describes what you would like to learn about queer archives (100-200 words).