The University’s Special Collections are available to all students in the University. The collections include rare books, manuscripts, records, letters, photographs, maps and drawings. Use the search box below to find specific items on the Enterprise catalogue.
The Special Collections Service is based on the London Road campus, in the same building as the Museum of English Rural Life. Items from the Special Collections cannot be borrowed, but they can be consulted in the reading room. You’re advised to plan ahead and contact Special Collections prior to your visit, so that we can have the material ready for you for when you arrive.
The following collections may be relevant to your research.
All of the archives listed above are imprints of Random House, and access to these archives is granted by Penguin Random House - more information about this process can be found on the Random House page.
Other collections
There are a few items in the University History Archive that discuss homosexuality:
The little red schoolbook (1969) offered alternative advice to teenagers on topics ranging from school, sex, and drugs, and predicted that “the time will come when homosexual marriages are recognised”. It was the subject of some controversy at the time it was published and censored in several countries.
The following articles related to this title may be of interest:
If you would like to make use of the University's Special Collections for your dissertation research, a good place to start would be the Subject Explorer guides. This guide has been created to help you make use of the University of Reading Special Collections in your dissertation.
Reading University theses and dissertations
The Library receives a copy of all theses accepted for the degrees of PhD and MPhil by the University. All theses held by the Library can be found on the Enterprise catalogue. Recently submitted theses might also be available to download from the University's Institutional Repository, CentAUR.
Masters theses can usually be consulted in the relevant school or department.
Finding theses from other institutions
There are a number of specialist sources for finding theses produced at other institutions around the world. Many more are becoming available online making it much easier to get the full-text. For more information see our guide to finding theses.
See our guide to finding theses for more information:
The University of Reading's institutional repository for research publications has a range of LGBTQIA+-related material. These are just a few examples. For more, search CentAUR:
CentAUR (Central Archive at the University of Reading) is the University of Reading's institutional repository for research publications and equivalent research outputs.
Austin, A. L. C. (2024) Transing the narrative: transgender identities in Britain, 1870-1940s PhD thesis, University of Reading
Lesnik-Oberstein, K. (2023) Childhood, children’s literature and (trans)gender identity in current western discourse.
Hamilton, F. and Sperti, A. (2023) Incrementalism revisited – the contrasting approaches of Italy, England and Wales and Northern Ireland towards legalization of same-sex marriage.
Faloppa, F., Gambacorta, A., Odekerken, R. and van der Noordaa, R., (2023) Study on preventing and combating hate speech in times of crisis.
Stupart, L. (2018) I want to show you a body: thinking through gender, bodies, and building different worlds.
Ryan, W. S., Legate, N., Weinstein, N. and Rahman, Q. (2017) Autonomy support fosters lesbian, gay, and bisexual identity disclosure and wellness, especially for those with internalized homophobia.
The Sexual Constitution of Political Authority by As a member of the University of Reading you can usually use other academic libraries. However, if you want to consult another Library's collections please contact the Library concerned before making a special journey.
You can identify some UK research and University libraries by looking at the list of libraries contributing to the Library Hub Discover service:
We are members of two SCONUL schemes which enable you to access many other UK HE libraries. In some cases you may be able to borrow.
For more information see our guide to using other libraries:
Overview from the Curator and Assistant Curator of the Ure Museum:
The museum collection (both displayed and stored objects: the gem casts in particular in the latter, hidden categories) is rife with iconography that might be useful in studies of / approaches to gender, the history of LGBTQIA+ ideology, non-binary human representation and gender fluidity and sexualities.
The display is subtly demarcated into feminine spheres (the west side of the museum) and masculine spheres (the east side of the museum) yet without any labels indicating such because the Curators recognise that such a demarcation is based on ancient Greek ideas about gender roles that might not map onto all ancient let alone modern societies.
LGBTQIA+ issues have been highlighted in recent exhibits in connection with the Winckelmann Jubilees and projects done by the Museum Studies students.