HomeSearching for Homosexuality in Judicial Archives

Searching for Homosexuality in Judicial Archives

Chercher « l’homosexualité » dans les archives judiciaires

Epistemological, Methodological and Political Challenges (18 th-20 th centuries)

Enjeux épistémologiques, méthodologiques et politiques (XVIIIe-XXe siècle)

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Abstract

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This workshop aims to explore the epistemological, methodological and political challenges of using judicial archives to conduct historical research on homosexuality. It will be held on 7 and 8 November 2025 at Campus Condorcet in Aubervilliers, France (Paris area). It is open to all early career researchers (master's, doctoral and post-doctoral researchers) conducting investigations into the history of homosexuality using court records and/or other judicial documents, whatever their discipline. This edition focuses specifically on the issue of framing the object of research and on categories of analysis in the history of homosexuality, and how these are put to the test by confrontation with this material.

Announcement

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Research workshop for graduate students and early career researchers

Argument

Over the last ten years or so, court records have emerged as a new fertile ground for the history of homosexuality (Delessert, 2012; Huard, 2016; Stroh, 2018; Zinn, 2018; Reglia, 2020; Fernández-Galeano, 2024). Registers, complaints, investigations, depositions, confrontations, expert reports, sentences: the documents found in judicial files, whatever the jurisdiction (civil, criminal, military), raise many questions. In a first workshop devoted to these archives, we explored the many ways of identifying homosexual practices within them: quantitative approaches of large records of homo-specific offences; searching for rare occurrences of homosexual conduct in large sets of non-specific proceedings; in-depth case studies of exceptional examples. These research techniques enabled us to develop several types of historical reflection: hermeneutical and epistemological ponderings over the presence of homosexuality in the archives; speculative analyses over typologies of sexual deviance using statistical modelling; qualitative deep readings of singular cases. From our shared experience, judicial archives have proved to be an invaluable resource, both for studying the history of the judicial control of sexualities (particularly the criminalization of homosexuality) and for writing social and cultural histories of “forgotten lives” (Farge, 2019) in the realm of the everyday.

However, the issue of our categories of analysis struck us as an important challenge. Knowing which “homosexuality(ies)” we research when approaching court records is by no means obvious. The diversity of experiences and points of view present in court files often challenges our epistemological frameworks. Regarding the designation or identification of subjects and practices, the adjective “homosexual” sometimes proves inadequate to describe the social realities and subjectivities found in the archives, which might be better approached from the angle of trans, intersex or bisexual history. What's more, the emic categories of the archive, whether those of the actors or those of the law, often differ from our contemporary understandings of sexualities and identities, raising the question of anachronisms (Loraux, 2005). Another challenge lies in the diverse types of affectionate/sexual partnerships found in the documents. We find partnerships that are consensual as well as coerced or even violent, transactional or not, involving adolescents (or even children) or adults alone, in contexts of family or institutional dependence between partners or outside of them. The common ground for bringing these cases together under a single heading and their designation are thus called into question, especially as parallel categories of analysis (sexual violence, prostitution, paedocriminality, incest, etc.) suggest different labels and empirical groupings. Similarly, the social contexts of these partnerships are very diverse (city, countryside, convent, factory, church, family home, school, barracks, prison), each shaping the interactions and identification of the actors. The uniqueness of a context might lead us to question the need for a specific designation or categorization.

Beyond the minimal definition of homosexuality as an erotic/affective relationship between people of the same gender, confrontation with judicial documents requires us to shift, nuance, divide or recompose our categories as well as our corpuses, in ways that remain to be explored. Where queer history invites us to “tweak” the archives, as Ruby Faure suggests (Faure, 2021), it seems to us that the archives in turn “tweak” our object of research. In their work, Daniel Marshall and Zeb Tortorici consider this double movement to be central to the queer experience of the archives (Marshall and Tortorici, 2022; Amin, 2017). Following in their footsteps, our new workshop asks how we might address these epistemological and hermeneutical dilemmas over the designation, distinction and grouping of cases and situations under/with the help of categories of analysis, from a historian’s perspective. We’ll address both the use of the category of homosexuality (and other competing categories) as a way of grouping social situations around common characteristics (and, in so doing, distinguishing them from others) and as a general framework for our investigations, i.e. as a research “object”. Rather than an distinct domain of social reality, is the category of “homosexuality” just an exploratory tool for questioning the multiplicity of identities, social relationships, power relations and socio-spatial contexts of sexuality during the survey process?

Axis of investigation

Rather than dwelling on de-constructivist observations or purely epistemological reflections, our aim in this workshop is to develop clear proposals and elaborate practical methods to address the challenges of categorization, ultimately putting forward concrete readings of the judicial material. To paraphrase David Halperin, how can we do a history of homosexuality (Halperin, 2004), if this category still makes sense? We suggest four areas of investigation, which broadly follow the various stages of historical research. Paper proposals (20 min) may address one or more of these axes, together or separately.

Axis 1: locating, identifying

The first axis concerns the initial stages of the research process, from the conception of the subject to the first confrontation with the sources. Court records, far from providing access to an already-formed research object, operate according to their own categorical logic: those of the law, those of actors in the legal field, and those of other people involved in the proceedings (first and foremost the litigants). How can we understand the discrepancies between our initial research object and the emic categories (legal titles, terms used by the players) found in the archives? What effects do these discrepancies have on our research object itself, whether we choose to refine it, transform it or, on the contrary, preserve it?

Axis 2: selecting, grouping, subdividing

Examination of court records reveals the great variety and complexity of social situations and identities. This raises the question of how to bring cases together in a corpus. What kind of history do we end up writing when we choose to include or exclude cases according to a certain framing or categorical delimitation? The aim of this section is to examine the operations involved in sorting, selecting and topologizing the selected cases. We take these operations as indicators of the reconfiguration of the research framework. The possibility of modifying, moving or expanding a corpus over the course of an investigation and its consequences for the object itself will be at the heart of our questioning, as will the effect of the number of cases available on the choices of categorization and framing.

Axis 3: interpreting

The difficulties of framing the subject and categorizing situations also arise in the analysis of singular cases once they have been brought together in a corpus. In a judicial case, the reality of the players' actions, their sense of themselves and the meaning of their actions in the eyes of others are rarely transparent. What difficulties arise, then, when we choose to interpret a social situation using one category of analysis rather than another? Is it sometimes necessary to consider multiple interpretations of the same situation?

Axis 4: putting into words

When trying to write about the sources, researchers are faced with the difficulty of manipulating the language of archives while choosing their own vocabulary. What words should be used when dealing with sources that now seem euphemistic? How do we capture the subjectivities that the language of archives tends to erase or distort? And what place should be given to the original language of the sources

Regardless of the axis chosen, we invite the participants to reflect on the issue of the researcher's positionality in relation to the sources, and the way in which this guides their choices of framing and categorization (Arondekar et al., 2015). We also invite everyone to reflect on the place of “disturbing” practices (Doan, 2013; Amin, 2017; Niedergang and Piterbraut-Merx, 2021) in relation to our contemporary political and moral standards in our narratives. Finally, we invite participants to reflect on the political stakes of the categories or framing adopted from the point of view of the present, whether in societies that have adopted homonationalist narratives (Puar, 2007) or in those where illiberal sexual policies dominate.

How to apply

To take part in this workshop, please send a paper proposal to atelierjeuneschercheur-es@proton.me. Proposals may be written in French or English. They must include a title, indicate the chosen axis(es) and be no longer than 500 words (excluding bibliography). A short presentation of the author(s) (affiliation, professional situation and/or research career) is required. Funding (partial or full) for travel and/or accommodation may be offered, depending on the situation and available resources.

Calendar

  • Closing date for applications: 12 September 2025

  • Replies sent: 29 September 2025
  • Date of the workshop: 7-8 November 2025

Organizing committee

  • Sherine Berzig, Université de Cergy
  • Paul Durand, EHESS
  • Romain Jaouen, Sciences Po Paris
  • Quentin Trichard

Bibliography

AMIN Kadji, Disturbing Attachments. Genet, Modern Pederasty, and Queer History, Durham,  Duke University Press, 2017. 

ARONDEKAR Anjali et al., « Queering Archives : A Roundtable Discussion », Radical History  Review, 2015, n° 122, p. 211-231. 

BUTLER Judith, Gender Trouble, New York, Routledge, 1990. 

DELESSERT Thierry, Les homosexuels sont un danger absolu. Homosexualité masculine en  Suisse durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Antipodes, Lausanne, 2012. 

DOAN Laura, Disturbing practices. History, sexuality and women’s experience of modern  war, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2013. 

FARGE Arlette, Vies oubliées. Au cœur du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, La Découverte, 2019. 

FAURE Ruby, « Tordre les archives (queering archives). Oui, mais dans quel sens ? », GLAD!,  2021, vol. 11, n° 11. 

FERNANDEZ-GALEANO Javier, Maricas Queer Cultures and State Violence in Argentina and  Spain, 1942-1982, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2024. 

HALPERIN David M., How to Do the History of Homosexuality, Chicago, University of Chicago  Press, 2004. 

HUARD Geoffroy, Les gays sous le franquisme. Discours, subcultures et revendications à  Barcelone, 1939-1977, Villeurbanne, Orbis Tertius, 2016. 

LORAUX Nicole, « Eloge de l’anachronisme en histoire », Espaces Temps, 2005, vol. 87, n°  1, p. 127-139. 

MARSHALL Daniel et TORTORICI Zeb, Turning archival. The life of the historical in queer  studies, Durham, Duke University Press, 2022. 

NIEDERGANG Pierre et PITERBRAUT-MERX Tal, « Violence sexuelle ou “initiation” ? :  Communautés, trauma et normativité queer », GLAD, 2021, n° 10. 

PUAR Jasbir, Terrorist assemblages. Homonationalism in queer times, Durham, Duke  University Press, 2007. 

REGLIA Marco, Mascolinità devianti. Dall’ex Litorale austriaco all’ex Venezia Giulia,  Trieste, Università Trieste, 2020. 

STROH Frédéric, Justice et homosexualité sous le national-socialisme. Etude comparée du  pays de Bade et de l’Alsace, thèse d’histoire sous la direction de Catherine Maurer,  Université de Strasbourg / Centre Marc Bloch, Strasbourg / Berlin, 2018. 

ZINN Alexander, Aus dem Volkskörper entfernt ? Homosexuelle Männer im  Nationalsozialismus, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2018. 

Places

  • Aubervilliers, France (93)

Event attendance modalities

Full on-site event


Keywords

  • histoire, homosexualité, archive judiciaire, catégorie, méthode, genre, sexualité, queer

License

CC-BY-4.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0 .

To cite this announcement

Sherine Berzig, Quentin Trichard, Romain Jaouen, Paul Durand, « Searching for Homosexuality in Judicial Archives », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, July 09, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/14awy

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