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I am a historian of twentieth-century Europe, specialising in modern German history, queer history and the history of sexuality. I moved to Manchester Met in September 2016, after previously teaching at UCL and Queen Mary, University of London. At Manchester Met I am the co-lead of the Youth, Gender and Sexuality research group.
I am a co-founder and co-convenor of the History of Sexuality Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, an associate of the Raphael Samuel History Centre, and a member of the German History Society. Between 2015-2017 I was a public governor at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust (a mental health trust based in London).
In 2021 my book The Ambivalence of Gay Liberation was published with Oxford University Press. You can read an interview about the book on Notches, or watch the book launch here.
PhD History (2015): Queen Mary, University of London
MRes Modern Languages – German (2011): Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of London
BA German and History (2010): UCL
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2016)
I have previously taught twentieth-century German and European history at both UCL and Queen Mary, University of London.
I am currently unit leader of:
I also teach on:
I welcome informal approaches from anyone interested in undertaking postgraduate study at Manchester Met. I would be delighted to supervise work in the modern history of sexuality, LGBT and queer history, twentieth-century German history (especially post-1945), or in many other areas of modern European history, especially histories of social protest and cultural change.
I currently co-supervise a PhD student in Sociology, Craig Carey, who is investigating the contemporary LGBT/queer community in Manchester and activist responses to austerity and HIV/AIDS service provision.
My main areas of research expertise are in the modern history of sexuality, especially queer history, and twentieth-century German History. I am particularly interested in histories of gay liberation (and homosexual emancipation in earlier and later periods); the history of human rights; the history of emotions and of psychoanalysis; and post-Holocaust memory and testimony. In 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, I co-organised a conference on European histories of gay liberation and lesbian feminism. You can read a short report here.
My book The Ambivalence of Gay Liberation was published with Oxford University Press in early 2021. The Ambivalence of Gay Liberation explores ways of thinking, feeling, and talking about homosexuality in the 1970s. By drawing attention to ambivalence, the book reveals that gay liberation was never only about pride, but also about shame; characterised not only by hope, but also by fear; and driven forward not just by the pushes of confrontation, but also by the pulls of conformism. Ranging from the painstaking emergence of the gay press to the first representation of homosexuality on television, from debates over the sexual legacy of 1968 and the student movement to the memory of Nazi persecution, The Ambivalence of Gay Liberation is the first English-language book to tell the story of male homosexual politics in 1970s West Germany. In so doing, this book aims to change the way we think about modern queer history.
You can watch me discuss the book at the Institute of Historical Research here. A longer talk about my research is available here.
C. Griffiths (2021). The Ambivalence of Gay Liberation. Oxford University Press.
C. Griffiths (2022). Die Ambivalenz der Schwulenemanzipation der 1970er Jahre: Ein kurzer Überblick. Invertito: Jahrbuch für die Geschichte der Homosexualitäten. pp.136-145.
C. Griffiths (2016). Sex, Shame and West German Gay Liberation. German History. 34(3), pp.445-467.
C. Griffiths (2014). Gay activism in Modell Deutschland. European Review of History / Revue européenne d'histoire. 22(1), pp.60-76.
CE. Griffiths (2014). Between Triumph and Myth: Gay Heroes and navigating the schwule Erfolgsgeschichte. helden. heroes. héros. 1, pp.54-60.
C. Griffiths (2019). The International Effects of the Stonewall Riots. In: Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History.. Edited by Howard Chiang. Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2019., pp.1549-1555.
CE. Griffiths (2012). Konkurrierende Pfade der Emanzipation: Der Tuntenstreit (1973–1975) und die Frage des “respektablen Auftretens". A. Pretzel, V. Weiß. In: Rosa Radikale: Die Schwulenbewegung der 1970er Jahre. Hamburg: Männerschwarm, pp.143-159.
C. Griffiths (2023). Conference Report: Queer(ing) Spaces at the German Studies Association, 2023.
C. Griffiths Integrating Histories - contribution to the Royal Historical Society LGBT+ Histories report. , Royal Historical Society.
2020: Workshop - Public History in Lockdown and Beyond. Held online (September). Co-organiser.
2019: Stonewall 50 years on: Gay Liberation and Lesbian Feminism in its European Context. Manchester Metropolitan University (December). Co-organiser
2017: Queer Lives Past and Present: Interrogating the Legal. Birkbeck, University of London (November). Organiser.
2016: Radical Histories / Histories of Radicalism. Queen Mary, University of London (July). Strand Convener: ‘Diversity, Difference and Beyond’
2016: What is and how to do LGBT History? Methods, Subjects and Approaches. Manchester Metropolitan University (February). Co-organiser
2015: German History Society Annual Conference. Queen Mary, University of London (September). Local co-organiser
2012 What is LGBT(Q) History and where do we stand? Queen Mary, University of London (November). Co-organiser
Contemporary European History
Journal of the History of Sexuality
Memory Studies
HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) - Joint Research Programme ‘Uses of the Past’
2019: Past and Present Society Conference Organisation Grant
2017: Visiting Fellow, German Historical Institute, Washington D.C.
2015: German History Society small research grant
2013: Visiting Fellow, Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam (funded by the DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service)
2012: Royal Historical Society conference organisation grant
Reviewer for HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area): Joint Research Programme ‘Uses of the Past’
Associate, Raphael Samuel History Centre
Convenor, Seminar Series in the History of Sexuality, IHR London
Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Member, German History Society