How I found my research: Moira Neve studies visions of a queer utopia as described in an early 20th-century journal

By Tom Gresham

Moira Neve traveled to Ireland and back to find the right topic for their thesis. After studying Irish revolutionary movements and attending events related to current social issues while abroad for five months, Neve returned home and continued their extensive ongoing reading about queer utopias. The resulting "spark" is their study of the early 20th-century feminist journal Urania, which celebrated same-sex relationships and sought to abolish gender binaries, among other efforts.

The study is Neve's thesis as part of their studies as an M.A. in English student in the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University. Neve, who previously earned a B.A. in English from VCU, shared with VCU News what drew them to their topic and the surprises it has brought during their research efforts so far.

In two sentences, tell us the focus of your research ... and why it is important/impactful for all of us.

I want to bring contemporary theory on queer utopianism - particularly that which eschews gay assimilation, white supremacy and heteronormativity - into a historical study of the early 20th-century gender studies journal Urania, which sought to abolish gender binaries, challenge the institution of marriage and celebrate same-sex relationships. My research expands on José Esteban Muñoz's conceptualization of queerness as utopian feeling/thinking that is inseparable from a desire for social improvement.

What inspired you to pursue this line of research?

I lived in Ireland for five months in 2022, and was learning a lot about Irish revolutionary movements, as well as how England essentially piloted in Ireland the same colonial techniques that they would later export to genocide Indigenous peoples in North America, all in a really condensed period of time. I was also attending community meetings with local activists and organizers around issues like abortion and LGBTQIA+ rights, against a political-scape that is unique from ours but had a lot of overlapping questions with the rise of fascism, attacks on trans people, and xenophobia in particular. All the while, I was turning to books to answer new questions I was forming around queer resistance to gay pragmatism and assimilation, both in Ireland and the United States in this period post-legalization of gay marriage.

Then I got back to Richmond and was searching for a topic for my thesis, and I knew I wanted it to be grounded in queer utopias, with what I read about revolutionary Irish history never quite leaving my mind, but was struggling to find that spark that you need to dedicate yourself to a research topic. Then I read José Esteban Muñoz's "Cruising Utopia" (seminal text for queers everywhere), and a one-liner I had once heard about someone referring to the Irish poet Eva Gore-Booth's involvement in the journal Urania (1916-1940) as a vision of queer utopia re-materialized in my brain. The rest is history!

Tell us about a surprise in your research journey.

It always surprises people when I tell them that even in the beginning of the 20th century, Urania was talking about sapphic relationships and writing articles about abolishing the gender binary. The journal was founded in 1916, so even though the editorial circle was involved in all sorts of social movements, from trade unions for working class women, to eliminating gender norms for children, to animal rights and mysticism, the first wave of feminism was primarily concerned with suffrage.

Urania's feminism went beyond electoral politics and reform, but for me what has been the most surprising is the contradictions that arise when, in this case, I'm trying to read a text that was radical in many ways through the lens of my politic today, but also co-existed with problematic ideas about social improvement, spirituality and the evils of the eugenic movement during the interwar period. It's helped me to have a more complicated understanding of time and history; this makes me hopeful about the lessons someone in the future might take and expand on our contemporary understandings of queerness.

I love unraveling strands of literary studies to find their transdisciplinary roots in gender studies, women studies, trans and queer theory, all while playing with the deeply historical nature of my research. In other words, my own preconceived notions about the evidence of queer lives through history is constantly being challenged.

Moira Neve

Tell us about an obstacle or challenge you had to overcome in your work.

When working with archival materials on a deeply historical project like mine, there are always the challenges of primary sources simply going missing. I have tried to embrace this as part of the mystery, pleasure and ephemerality of working with the past "to imagine the future," as Muñoz would say. The first three years of the journal I am researching are lost to time, not to mention the archives are located in London. Luckily, the journal was digitized in 2023 by the Glasgow Women's Library and London School of Economics, or else I would be out of luck. If anyone wants to respond to my grant applications, I hope to visit the archives in-person and one day hold Urania in my hands!

Is there a memorable partnership or lesson you've embraced along the way?

It can be really vulnerable to share writing on your research in the drafts stages. I work at the VCU Writing Center as a graduate assistant, and I am an adjunct instructor for a course called Writing with Confidence, so I basically ask my students to be vulnerable and reflective in their writing on a daily basis. Yet, it wasn't until I started working closely with my thesis committee that I had to demand the same accountability and openness of myself.

I feel so grateful to get to spend so much time in my head dreaming about queer utopias and thinking about ways we can collectively change our future, but when that "writer-based prose" hits the page, my thoughts often don't make as much sense to the reader as they do to me. Collaborating with my thesis advisor, Dr. Adin Lears, in particular has been a learning process, because they push me to articulate my ideas and arguments, which in turn has challenged me to grow my research and writing methodology in really generative ways.

What do you find fulfilling about the research process?

Even though my background is as a double English major, I love unraveling strands of literary studies to find their transdisciplinary roots in gender studies, women studies, trans and queer theory, all while playing with the deeply historical nature of my research. In other words, my own preconceived notions about the evidence of queer lives through history is constantly being challenged, and I love the feeling of being in my own niche corner of this larger literary tradition, sifting through the archives only to arrive at new surprises every day.

What advice would you offer undergrads to kick-start their own research journeys?

Write down your ideas! If you find a text that sweeps you off your feet, or another researcher in your field leaves you with more questions than when you started, this could be a great place to return to when you're starting a thesis or research paper. Some of my best writing comes from a stray Notes app entry. Also, when you're deep in research mode: Ctrl-F is your friend!

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