In 2025 I was a recipient of a Wales, Arts, Health & Wellbeing Network Go & See bursary which enabled me to attend the Queerness in Natural History Symposium at the Linnean Society. The trip formed part of my MA Arts, Health & Wellbeing research, where I explored the role of queer ecology as an affirmative framework for supporting LGBTQ+ communities through a nature-based movement practice. It was inspiring to learn about the many different ways that queer ecology is being practised across a range of sectors and organisations, and to connect with some wonderful ecologists, historians, curators, and artists all exploring how nature-based spaces, practices and narratives can become more inclusive for LGBTQ+ people, whose identities have long been marginalised within the environmental sector. The symposium offered a warm and welcoming space to imagine futures where queerness is not only acknowledged, but deeply woven into the ways we connect with, care for, and find belonging within the natural world we are all part of.

 

Thanks so much again to WAHWN and Arts Council Wales for supporting my trip.