The couple: commitment and durability in the era of marriage equality. This project aims to examine the notion of the couple in the era of marriage equality. It is generally thought that couple longevity is an incontestable good socially, psychologically, and economically. The advent of same-sex marriage in Australia provides the occasion to reconsider why it is that general cultural benefits are thought to devolve from coupled intimacy alone. Rather than dismiss the value of marriage, either st ....The couple: commitment and durability in the era of marriage equality. This project aims to examine the notion of the couple in the era of marriage equality. It is generally thought that couple longevity is an incontestable good socially, psychologically, and economically. The advent of same-sex marriage in Australia provides the occasion to reconsider why it is that general cultural benefits are thought to devolve from coupled intimacy alone. Rather than dismiss the value of marriage, either straight or gay, this project looks at an archive of contemporary representations in which the couple form presents as a public good, not a private good. This anthropological study tests the supposed connection between intimate companionship and collective thriving.Read moreRead less
Reconceiving the queer public sphere: an interdisciplinary analysis of same-sex couple domesticity. Using literary, biographical and photographic sources, this project will produce a ground-breaking history of same-sex domestic environments across the twentieth century. Critically analysing queer home life, this project will transform current understandings of the relation between homosexuality, private life and the public sphere.