Queer in a Wee Place
Small Nations, Sexuality & Scotland
Published on 2. April 2026
Book
Hardback
344 pages
978-1-350-51303-7 (ISBN)
Description
Queer in a Wee Place explores identity, inequality and belonging in animated conversations about how queerness moves through place - and how place, in turn, shapes queer lives.
Building on interdisciplinary sexualities scholarship, activism, creative practices, as well as legislative and cultural critique, this open access book examines the past, present and future imaginings of queerness in Scotland, as a 'wee place'.
With cases covering law, policies, cultural institutions, education, and everyday life, this collection offers an in-depth analysis of Scottish queer experience, showing how 'wee places' reflect and inflect global dynamics - revealing tensions between national pride, visibility and exclusion.
Scotland's national claims about being world-leading in the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights often re-invoke a global hierarchy of places to be queer. The under-resourcing of and backlash against equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and colliding legislation such as hate crime laws and the UK Supreme Court ruling, expose a more complicated truth.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com Open access was funded by UKRI.
Building on interdisciplinary sexualities scholarship, activism, creative practices, as well as legislative and cultural critique, this open access book examines the past, present and future imaginings of queerness in Scotland, as a 'wee place'.
With cases covering law, policies, cultural institutions, education, and everyday life, this collection offers an in-depth analysis of Scottish queer experience, showing how 'wee places' reflect and inflect global dynamics - revealing tensions between national pride, visibility and exclusion.
Scotland's national claims about being world-leading in the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights often re-invoke a global hierarchy of places to be queer. The under-resourcing of and backlash against equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and colliding legislation such as hate crime laws and the UK Supreme Court ruling, expose a more complicated truth.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com Open access was funded by UKRI.
Reviews / Votes
Fresh, insightful, thought-provoking - Queer in a Wee Place takes us on a journey across a wide terrain. Scotland in all its multiplicity. Scotland anew! * Jackie Kay * This is a dazzling collection, a volume that contains a marvelously rich mix from feminist and queer legal theory, to social and cultural policy as it impacts on queer and working-class communities in Scotland, to migrant queer experiences on the dancefloor. There is also biography and autobiography as well as ethnographic work in the classroom. A key feature is the importance of ongoing struggles and resistance against heteronormative assumptions and alongside this the need to challenge Scottish romanticisms about its progressive identity. Its a major achievement, an erudite and also a highly readable volume, a 'must read' indeed. * Angela McRobbie, Goldsmiths University of London, UK * This book provides a powerful and vast validation of the varied experiences and blends of identities that queer people experience - as well as some needed wake-up calls on where Scotland is as a country. A necessary contribution to queer discourse. * Emma Roddick MSP * This generative and confronting collection invites us to re-think, re-position, and re-imagine the imbrication of queerness and Scottishness, alongside other social differences. Taylor has curated an impressive array of creatives, scholars, and activists who explore the tensions, possibilities, pleasures, risks, and glitches that emerge for queer and trans people navigating their senses of belonging to the 'wee nation' of Scotland. * Senthorun Raj, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK * Yvette Taylor's Queer in a Wee Place is a carefully curated collection of 'big conversations' about queerness in peripheral places in Scotland. It is attentive to where people come from, 'noticing the dirt and delight of a back lane in Glasgow marked 'lesbian library', it remembers what was scrawled on the wall before it was scrubbed clean'. Revelling in interdisciplinary methods this collection dwells in local histories, languages, and social systems inviting readers to contemplate very specific places and practices and have shaped queer lives. * Mary Lou Rasmussen, Australian National University, Australia *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
687 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-51303-7 (9781350513037)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Yvette Taylor is a Sociologist and Professor of Education, Strathclyde Institute of Education, University of Strathclyde, UK.
Content
Introduction
1.Big Conversations in Queer Wee Places: Small, Nations, Sexuality and Scotland
Yvette Taylor, University of Strathclyde, UK
Section 1: Queer Counts! Categories, Legalities and Challenges
2.Yes
Robyn O'Donnell
3.Hate Crime in Scotland and the Classification of Queer Lives: Doors, Data and Definitions
Kevin Guyan, University of Edinburgh, UK
4.Queer Hope of LGBTQ+ Rights in a Wee Place
Sharon Cowan, University of Edinburgh, UK
5.The Construction of Scotland's LGBTQ+ Population in the Census
Kirstie Ken English, University of Glasgow, UK
6.The Revolt and Revolting,
Jj Fadaka
Section 2 Queer States: Legacies and Transformations
7.Queer Provincialisms in (Post-)Brexit Britain
Yvette Taylor, Strathclyde Institute of Education, UK
8.Scotland's Menstrual Landscape, a Red Flag?
Kate Molyneaux, University of Strathclyde, UK
9.Queer in Scotland: A Wives' Tale in Conversation
Aoife Christoffersen, and Ashlee Christoffersen, York University, Canada
10.Being Queer in Scotland: Conversational Snapshots
Dario Luis Banegas, University of Edinburgh, UK, and Drew Bain
11.Queer New Scots? On Migration, Queerness and Scottish Exceptionalism
Francesca Stella, University of Glasgow, UK
12.Assemblages
Mae Diansangu
Section 3: Queer Homelands: Myths, Migrations and Movements
13.Leaving is Queer: Loving and leaving a Wee Place
Finn Mackay, University of the West of England, UK
14.The Aul' Days: Ewan Forbes and the Ghost in the Machine
Zoe Playdon, University of London, UK
15. A Queer Poetics of Belonging: From Dui Bangla to Glasgow
Tanvir Alim, University of Glasgow, UK and Rohit K Dasgupta, LSE, UK
16.Lessons in Geography: Learning from Maud Sulter
Natasha Thembiso Ruwona
17.Unintended Poiesis
Sindhu Rajasekaran
Section 4: Queer Creations: Vibrations, Glitches and Curiosities
18.Queer Wee Filmic Places: Creating a Utopic Gaze through Queer Film Exhibition in Scotland,
Leanne Dawson, University of Edinburgh, UK
19.Queer Curiosities: LGBTQ+ Equity in Scotland's Museums
Joe Setch
20.After Morgan: On Legacy and Queer Elders in Poetry
Andres N. Ordorica
21.Brilliant Vibrating Interface: Queering the Post-Internet through Poetry and Practice
Kirsty Dunlop, University of Glasgow, UK and Maria Sledmere, University of Strathclyde, UK
22.International Stories on a Scottish Stage: A Conversation on Representation, Recognition and Activism through the As Is Ethnodrama
Harvey Humphrey, University of Glasgow, UK, Slater Clain, Gina Gwenffrewi, University of Edinburgh, UK, Leni Daly, Odhran Thomson and Mathew Wilkie
Section 5: Queer Education: (Post-)Compulsory Classroom Contexts
23. Black Scottish Writing and the Fiction of Diversity
Churnjeet Mahn, University of Strathclyde, UK
24. Welcome Home? Finding your (Queer) Place in Scotland and in STEM
Marco Reggiani, University of Strathclyde, UK and Jessica Gagnon, University of Manchester, UK
25. Disabled Queer Student Experiences of Scottish Higher Education
Jack McKinlay, University of Strathclyde, UK
26. NOHOMO in the Classroom: Queer Ideas Through and Beyond Scottish Classrooms"
Dan Brown
1.Big Conversations in Queer Wee Places: Small, Nations, Sexuality and Scotland
Yvette Taylor, University of Strathclyde, UK
Section 1: Queer Counts! Categories, Legalities and Challenges
2.Yes
Robyn O'Donnell
3.Hate Crime in Scotland and the Classification of Queer Lives: Doors, Data and Definitions
Kevin Guyan, University of Edinburgh, UK
4.Queer Hope of LGBTQ+ Rights in a Wee Place
Sharon Cowan, University of Edinburgh, UK
5.The Construction of Scotland's LGBTQ+ Population in the Census
Kirstie Ken English, University of Glasgow, UK
6.The Revolt and Revolting,
Jj Fadaka
Section 2 Queer States: Legacies and Transformations
7.Queer Provincialisms in (Post-)Brexit Britain
Yvette Taylor, Strathclyde Institute of Education, UK
8.Scotland's Menstrual Landscape, a Red Flag?
Kate Molyneaux, University of Strathclyde, UK
9.Queer in Scotland: A Wives' Tale in Conversation
Aoife Christoffersen, and Ashlee Christoffersen, York University, Canada
10.Being Queer in Scotland: Conversational Snapshots
Dario Luis Banegas, University of Edinburgh, UK, and Drew Bain
11.Queer New Scots? On Migration, Queerness and Scottish Exceptionalism
Francesca Stella, University of Glasgow, UK
12.Assemblages
Mae Diansangu
Section 3: Queer Homelands: Myths, Migrations and Movements
13.Leaving is Queer: Loving and leaving a Wee Place
Finn Mackay, University of the West of England, UK
14.The Aul' Days: Ewan Forbes and the Ghost in the Machine
Zoe Playdon, University of London, UK
15. A Queer Poetics of Belonging: From Dui Bangla to Glasgow
Tanvir Alim, University of Glasgow, UK and Rohit K Dasgupta, LSE, UK
16.Lessons in Geography: Learning from Maud Sulter
Natasha Thembiso Ruwona
17.Unintended Poiesis
Sindhu Rajasekaran
Section 4: Queer Creations: Vibrations, Glitches and Curiosities
18.Queer Wee Filmic Places: Creating a Utopic Gaze through Queer Film Exhibition in Scotland,
Leanne Dawson, University of Edinburgh, UK
19.Queer Curiosities: LGBTQ+ Equity in Scotland's Museums
Joe Setch
20.After Morgan: On Legacy and Queer Elders in Poetry
Andres N. Ordorica
21.Brilliant Vibrating Interface: Queering the Post-Internet through Poetry and Practice
Kirsty Dunlop, University of Glasgow, UK and Maria Sledmere, University of Strathclyde, UK
22.International Stories on a Scottish Stage: A Conversation on Representation, Recognition and Activism through the As Is Ethnodrama
Harvey Humphrey, University of Glasgow, UK, Slater Clain, Gina Gwenffrewi, University of Edinburgh, UK, Leni Daly, Odhran Thomson and Mathew Wilkie
Section 5: Queer Education: (Post-)Compulsory Classroom Contexts
23. Black Scottish Writing and the Fiction of Diversity
Churnjeet Mahn, University of Strathclyde, UK
24. Welcome Home? Finding your (Queer) Place in Scotland and in STEM
Marco Reggiani, University of Strathclyde, UK and Jessica Gagnon, University of Manchester, UK
25. Disabled Queer Student Experiences of Scottish Higher Education
Jack McKinlay, University of Strathclyde, UK
26. NOHOMO in the Classroom: Queer Ideas Through and Beyond Scottish Classrooms"
Dan Brown