Queer Data Launch: Data as a tool for social justice

*Livestream will appear above at 7pm or watch on youtube HERE*

Data has never mattered more. Our lives are increasingly shaped by it and how it is defined, collected and used. But who counts in the collection, analysis and application of data?

It's a joy and an honour to welcome Kevin Guyan to the bookshop for a wide-ranging discussion of data and social justice, at the launch of his vital new book Queer Data.

Arming us with the tools for action, Kevin and fellow panelists will show how greater knowledge about marginalised identities is instrumental in informing decisions about resource allocation, changes to legislation, access to services, representation and visibility.

Kevin demonstrates why it is important to understand, collect and analyse queer data, the benefits and challenges involved in doing so, and how we might better use queer data in our work.

This hugely important book is the first to look at queer data – defined as data relating to gender, sex, sexual orientation and trans identity/history. Current data practices reflect an incomplete account of LGBTQ lives and Queer Data will help us understand how data biases are used to delegitimise the everyday experiences of queer people.

Format: *this event is primarily virtual, with a small in person audience*

7pm: Introductions and a conversation with Kevin Guyan on themes in Queer Data

7.45pm: A wider panel discussion on the use of data in our activism and as a tool to advance social justice

8.15pm: Open up for 15 minutes of audience questions

SPEAKERS:

Kevin Guyan (he/him) is a researcher whose work explores the intersection of data and identity, particularly as it relates to LGBTQ people in the UK. He is a Research Fellow in the School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow and previously worked for a higher education organisation that focuses on equality, diversity and inclusion among staff and students in universities and colleges.

Jovan Rao Rydder (he/him) is the Programme Director at Intercultural Youth Scotland, the national charity for Black and People of Colour (PoC) children and young people. IYS is a movement-building organisation, combining advocacy and community work. In the areas of youth work, employment, education and mental health, IYS is a community, a support, and an advocate for Black and PoC children and young people in Scotland. Jovan's reflections centre on the value of data in advocacy and community work, alongside seeing the research process itself as a site for structural oppression and alienation - and thus an essential target of antiracist change.

Kirstie English (they/them) is currently undertaking their PhD in Sociology researching how differences of sex, gender and sexuality should be represented by UK population surveys. The research focuses on the perspectives of those currently overlooked in survey data.  After their PhD they hope to continue researching the social and political significance of LGBTI+ population estimates and to keep irritating those that wish to force us into binary boxes. @kenglish95 Website: https://kenglish95.github.io

CHAIR: Leah Lockheart

Leah is a freelance design researcher, facilitator and workshop designer in Glasgow, Scotland. As a facilitator, Leah helps people come together for collective decision making and knowledge sharing in specially designed online workshops. As a design researcher, she helps organisations investigate whether their design approaches reproduce or dismantle inequities and inequalities. She also helps co-convene the Design Justice Network node in Scotland.

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