Gender and Sexuality Studies

UCL Special Collections is one of the foremost university collections of manuscripts, archives and rare books in the UK. Our holdings span the 4th century to the present day and cover a vaste range of subject areas and disciplines. The strengths of the collections include language, literature and poetry from the 15th to the 21st centuries, 20th and 21st century small-press publishing, politics and social policy, History of Science, Mathematics, Latin American history and economics, Hebraica and Judaica, Education, the history of London and the history of UCL.

The UCL Special Collections Small Press Collections, consisting of the Poetry Store, Little Magazines and Alternative Presses, contain numerous mid-twentieth century publications of relevance to Gender and Sexuality Studies, and include poetry and artwork by LGBTQIA+ writers and artists as well as magazines produced by activist groups from the 1960s onwards. The following is a selection.

To search Explore for material in the Small Press Collections, use the term 'smallpress' combined with your chosen keyword(s) and filter to show only those items in Special Collections.

Poetry Store:

• Pilot Press is a small press in the multidisciplinary, countercultural tradition of the gay liberation movement and artists' DIY publishing, with a focus on sharing voices that may not find an outlet elsewhere. Publications include:
  • Modern queer poets
  • Not here: a queer anthology of loneliness
  • Over there: a queer anthology of joy
  • A queer anthology of rage
  • A queer anthology of sickness
• Fourteen Poems is a London-based poetry publisher, spotlighting LGBTQ+ poets in anthologies and pamphlets. Publications include:
  • Bi+ lines: an anthology of contemporary bi+ poets
  • Fourteen poems - a series of queer poetry anthologies
  • Hemisferio Cuir: an anthology of young queer Latin American poetry 
  • The last lesbian bar in the Midlands
• GenderFail is a publishing and programming initiative that seeks to encourage projects that foster an intersectional queer subjectivity. Publications include:
  • Betraying authority: fragments on queer art
  • The GenderFail reader 1 + 2 + 3
  • GenderFail: an anthology of queer typography. Vol. 1
  • Publishing now: GenderFail's working class guide to making a living off self publishing
• Tenderness: a Black queer meditation on softness and rage (Co-Conspirator Press)
• Dictionary of the queer international. Volume 1 (PS Guelph)
• Nepantla: an anthology for queer poets of color (Nightboat Books)
• We are hungry for androgyny (Polari Press)
• We want it all: an anthology of radical trans poetics (Nightboat Books)

Little Magazines

• Almanac journal of trans poetics
• Arena three
• Mouth of the Dragon: a poetry journal of male love
• Outcome
• Sappho
• Shrew
• Spinster: a magazine of feminist creative work with an emphasis on the work of lesbians
• Tangents
• Writing women

Alternative Presses

• Gay left
• Gay news
• Gay sunshine
• The Ladder: a lesbian review
• Off our backs: a women's liberation bi-weekly
• Red rag: a collective magazine of women's liberation
• Spare rib

General reference

• Queer print in Europe

As well as the rare books and archives held by UCL Special Collections, the Library also subscribes to numerous databases of primary sources (digitised archival material). A primary source is a first-hand expression or evidence of an event or experience. This evidence can be in the form of the written word, images, artefacts, film or sound recordings, and will have been created at some point during the lifetime of the person involved. Using primary sources in your research adds context and credibility to your argument.

See a full list of over 200 primary source databases, many of which will have content of relevance to Gender and Sexuality Studies, or see our list of key primary source databases in Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Anyone with a need to consult our collections is welcome to do so. UCL Special Collections is reference only. It is essential to book in advance to make sure of a reading room place and that the items requested are available. Please contact us at least two weeks before you intend to visit. Unfortunately, we are not able to accommodate drop-in visits.

Search the catalogues for collections held across:

• UCL Special Collections comprising UCL Archives, UCL Records and the Institute of Education (IOE);
• School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES);
• Queen Square Archives comprising the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (UCLH) and UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology.