BCMCR’s research clusters respond to the new research theme, Transgressive Identities and Subjectivities

Our 9th October 2024 BCMCR event was led by Dr. Poppy Wilde and Dr. Matt Grimes, providing a stimulating overview of the research theme for 2024-26 – Transgressive Identities and Subjectivities. This prompted a flurry of engaging and thought-provoking suggestions and contributions from across our research cluster teams that will, over the coming months, be developed and presented at a conference in June 2025, and then pulled together for an edited collection, forming part of the BCMCR book series. Here I’ve tried to capture just some of the ideas discussed. 

Firstly, I wanted to address the timeliness of the theme. It crackles with relevance and possibilities; our current social, political and cultural landscape right now provides the backdrop to and the fuel for numerous and ranging dialogues around, for example, identities, privilege, conflict, belief systems and art. Truth has moved to post-truth. The news media is fake. Does something only exist when seen through social media? Is transgression from the norm now the norm? 

As set out in their research theme statement, Poppy and Matt seek to explore how transgression is practiced, embodied, and displayed, what transgression can do for the self, and how its impact on wider culture and society can be understood. And so, at the 9th October event, they invited BCMCR’s research clusters to listen to their plans for their research theme, and respond with ideas, provocations and propositions from their own areas of research. 

Setting the scene for the event’s discussion, Poppy and Matt laid out examples and interpretations of what could be understood as transgressive identities and subjectivities. They are giving attention to notions of the self, and rather than it being a fixed and static creation, it is always moving and negotiating pathways towards what we wish to become and what we are at present – we transgress away from our previous selves in a reflexive act. And, if this is so, what are the implications for communities, culture and society? How we are seen and understood by others depends on other’s subjectivities as much as our own. 

This raises questions, which through the course of the coming months, Poppy and Matt seek to address, such as: 

• Is transgression necessarily an extreme or public act, or is it something that can also take place internally, in a small way and in isolation? 

• How does it shape our current and future selves, especially considering how AI could be understood as enabling a transgression of what is real or fake? 

• How does transgression relate to or inform the movement of people across boundaries, and how does this relate to the understanding of a person’s right to be safe, their legitimacy and value in a society, their ethnicity or cultural background? 

• How far can you understand activism and protest to be transgressive acts?  

• How much of a role does context play in whether and act is transgressive or progressive? 

As is evident from these few examples, the range and diversity of questions raised by the theme, and their relevance to historical, contemporary, and future-facing discourse is compelling. This was also clear from the number of suggestions for areas of investigation put forward by members of our research clusters. 

Ideas from the Game Cultures cluster included examining how rule breaking or cheating in a game is a transgressive act, and how gamers themselves will alter code to introduce new elements into games, such as contemporary references placed in historically based games. Boundaries are crossed between game author and game player….so who does a game belong to? Furthermore, games that allow players to create their own characters can become a conduit for someone to express a more ‘transgressed’ version of themselves, and connections between avatars and players can transgress normative understandings of self, relationships, and supposed divides between human and machine. 

The Cultural Theory cluster spoke about the rioting in the UK during the summer of 2024, spurred on by anti-immigration, racist rhetoric and misinformation. It has been positioned as an afront to law and order but is also understood as a manifestation of certain ideas of sovereignty. So, in this context, whose account is to be upheld concerning who transgressed against society and what is understood as acceptable behaviour and language? Polarised viewpoints point fingers at each other causing destabilisation of communities and the self. Additionally, they pointed to topics concerning migration, immigration, political subjectivities, ideas of the nation state and cosmopolitanism – ways of being and understanding are transgressed or are transgressive. 

The theme was welcomed by the Popular Music Studies cluster, while commenting that popular music is a practice in which artists often express alternative modes of selfhood, and songwriting allows for different identities and personas to be voiced. It was also noted how popular music that transgressed conventions, form or genre is often reinterpreted and interpolated into the mainstream, and this raises questions around ‘selling out’. Also, within the often unwritten and biased (towards patriarchy, capitalism etc.) rules and agendas of the music industry, transgressing these can be a progressive act, such as singer-songwriter Raye challenging the system of payment for songwriters and Music Venue Trust seeking to redistribute wealth created at the very top of the live sector to support the grassroots. 

In responding to the theme, the Gender and Sexuality cluster considered what is mainstream and what is transgressive? There are destabilising identities within incel culture, for example, which although seen by many as transgressing against current and progressive ideas of womanhood and women’s place in society, they may not see themselves as transgressing society’s ‘norms’, and indeed reinforce traditional patriarchal norms. They could be understood as reacting against progressive movements that have challenged patriarchal and heteronormative ideologies – such as those embodied in feminism and LGBTQ+ rights activism. 

Finally, we heard from the History, Heritage and Archives cluster. They discussed how questioning who gets to ‘label’ history, and whose story is told, can be a transgressive act. However, in labelling something as a marginalised or alternative history, these descriptions may not be recognisable to some, if they consider their history to be their normal. Which set of societal ideas of ‘normal’ gets to decide what is considered worthy of archiving and labelling – what is the motivation, who accesses them and why? They also pointed to how and when transgressive identities and subjectivities emerge, through an historical lens, through shifting spaces. 

There are three further clusters in BCMCR who didn’t present at the launch event – Media, Journalism and Place, South Asian Media, and Film and the Digital Image. 

In a separate conversation with Poppy, the newly branded Media, Journalism and Place cluster responded to ideas of the theme in ways that both considered transgressive practices and transgressive peoples. Journalism has a long history, and with contemporary concerns about the reliability and trustworthiness of mainstream outlets we see a variety of new and emerging practices. Some of these involve a greater focus on more local news, and on higher quality journalistic practices, that might transgress current norms and conventions. Consideration of diasporic communities were also discussed, with questions resonant with other clusters. How do identities become transgressive (and to whom) when they are culturally displaced? What is being transgressed when we think of behaviours being linked to specific places, and either the behaviours or the spaces are changed? 

Both South Asian Media and Film and the Digital Image are brand new research clusters for 2024, so it will be exciting to see how these clusters develop and build both their agendas and priorities, as well as how those respond to the current theme, over the next few years. 

All in all, considering the ideas and suggestions generated for this kick-off event, the research theme of Transgressive Identities and Subjectivities promises to instigate revealing and timely discussions, talks, and events.