A new professorship in the history of sexualities is to be established at the University of Oxford, after a £5m donation in memory of the human rights lawyer and LGBTQ+ activist Jonathan Cooper who died last year.
The new chair will expand the teaching and research into LGBTQ+ history carried out at Oxford and will be the first fully endowed post of its type in the UK when it launches in 2023.
The university said the professorship “will act as a catalyst for developing scholarship in LGBTQ+ history at Oxford and also enable it to develop an interrelated series of courses to enhance the student experience, while attracting applicants who may not have considered pursuing study at Oxford before”.
Lyndal Roper, the university’s regius professor of history, said: “LGBTQ+ history is where some of the most vibrant historical research and writing is now happening and the creation of the Jonathan Cooper chair of the history of sexualities is an important milestone for the field. The coming generation is questioning what gender means, and now is the time to establish this exciting new scholarship.”
Funding for the endowment came from donations by Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, academics and co-founders of the Arcadia Fund, a grant-making charity that has donated millions of pounds to organisations working on human and natural diversity. Rausing is the daughter of Hans Rausing, the Tetra Pak billionaire.
The professorship will be based at Mansfield College, whose principal, Helen Mountfield, said: “It is my firm aim that this will be the start of an exciting research cluster exploring the histories and contributions of LGBTQ+ people. As a historian, in the nonconformist college, I am delighted to help widen the stories which are recorded and valued. As a lawyer, and a friend of Jonathan Cooper, I am proud that his enduring contribution to the history of LGBTQ+ emancipation will be recognised and celebrated by the post named in his memory.”
Cooper died suddenly in September last year. He was renowned for his work on international human rights law, and as an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and a commentator on issues such as trans rights, conversion practices and the rights of people living with HIV.
Kevin Childs, Cooper’s partner, said Cooper’s first love had been history: “If there’d been space in his life for him to be anything else he would have been an historian. So, it is particularly fitting that this first chair in the history of sexualities is named after him, for it acknowledges his passion and love as much as his reputation.”
Mansfield College plans to continue fundraising to establish a research cluster around the chair, to “spark debate and nurture new scholars”. It wants to support the post with fully funded graduate scholarships in LGBTQ+ history research.
