For its 6th edition, the London Festival of Queer Spanish Culture is teaming up with the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK (SRUK/CERU) to bring a panel on Iberian and transatlantic trans histories.
Location: Instituto Cervantes London
The panel will include the following presentations:
Mónica Morado (EUI) – Before Trans: Liminal Bodies and Identities in Early Modern Spain
Pablo Ferrer Cobelo (UMA) – Rota is Burning: heating up the Cold War through Carmen Xtravaganza’s stories
Alba M. Gálvez (UMU) & Joi Pineda (Independent) – Putting together an archive of drag king practices in Spain.
Patricio Simonetto (Leeds) – Raul’s Smile and Arturo’s Paintings. (Trans)atlantic Men through the Ruthless Archive in Argentina
Speakers bios:
Mónica Morado is a historian of the Early Modern and Baroque Iberian peninsula, focusing on gender practices and sexual indeterminacy in the period. She is a PhD candidate at the European University Institute (Florence) and her work has been published in outlets like Gender & History and the book Nefando Imperio (2025). She is part of the organizing committee of the LGTB+ History Month in Spain.
Pablo Ferrer Cobelo is a historian of queer realities in military contexts, whose work has also focused on artistic and community practices like ballroom. He is a PhD candidate at the University of Malaga, where he explores these topics through the figure of Carmen Xtravaganza and the US military base of Rota.
Alba M. Gálvez and Joi Pineda are interdisciplinary researchers combining linguistics, performance art and archival work to uncover hidden queer affects during the Franco regime. Alba is a Lecturer at the University of Murcia, and the author of the book Cabaret utópico de posguerra (2026). Joi is an independent artivist, researcher and curator. Together they co-founded the first archive of drag king practices in Spain, and take part in different dissemination initiatives.
Patricio Simonetto is one of the leading historians in the field of Latin American trans and travesti histories. He is the author of several academic books including Money Isn’t Everything (2024) and A Body of One’s Own: A trans history of Argentina (2024), which received the Sylvia Rivera Award (CLAGS) and was named Best Book in Social Sciences for the Latin American Studies Association. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds and previously held positions at UCL and CONICET.
The event will be in English. To book your seat, visit https://www.outsavvy.com/event/39612/uncovering-trans-histories-a-roundtable.