Living but a day: queer and feminist typographic interventions through archival engagement and participatory practice across Ireland

Abstract

This thesis draws on archive-led, practice-based research to develop textual interventions as an affective methodology for reimagining queer-feminist historical expression within LGBTQ* archives throughout the island of Ireland. Using an embodied autoethnographic approach, I explore personal queer longing and lived experience through engaging with archival collections such as the LGBTQIA+ NIHeritage Project, the Cork LGBT Archive, and the Irish Queer Archive. These collections are approached as living, affective entities, with typography positioned as a critical, performative medium for queer expression. Through an all-island study of Ireland’s queer archives, this study surfaces overlooked narratives and bridges archival research with creative, feminist-queer practice.

Living but a Day introduces a new body of text-based artworks that uncover poetic and textual traces of 20th-century queer-feminist movements in Ireland. Rooted in do-it-yourself (DIY) creative methods and a lesbian vernacular, this thesis critiques how emotional experience is translated into text, positioning it both as a medium of communication and as a craft that shapes memory and connection. By collecting and reassembling archival fragments from collections, this research utilises linguistic interventions to invite public engagement and emotional resonance. Techniques of respeaking and reenvisioning, understood as feminist strategies for examining the past to reframe the present, underscore the collaborative ethos of the work. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to knowledge by developing a new model of typographic and text-based archival activism, one that reconceptualises the queer feminist archive on the island of Ireland as a living, affective, and participatory space.

Date of Award	Feb 2026
Original language	English
Supervisor	Ian Montgomery (Supervisor), Brian Dixon (Supervisor) & Joseph Mc Brinn (Supervisor)