The Lesbian Lives conference is returning to Cork from May 15 to 17. Celebrating its 29th edition, the conference has a fantastic programme in store for attendees, featuring panel discussions, film screenings, hands-on workshops, social activities and more.

The event is being hosted by the LGBT+ Staff Network at University College Cork (UCC), alongside LINQ Ireland and scholars from University College Dublin (UCD), University of Sussex, and the University of Brighton Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender Research. A range of speakers and community organisers will be on hand to facilitate several interesting events, all under the theme ‘Lesbian* Life and Living’.

There are four keynote addresses scheduled as part of the programme. The first is from UCC’s Dr Aoife Neary on LGBTQ+ Lives in Primary Schools. The next will see two Irish authors in conversation, namely Chloe Michelle Howard, who wrote Sunburn and Heap Earth Upon It, and Katherine O’Donnell, who wrote SLANT.

On Saturday, artist farmers Karen Washington, Lisa Fingleton and Rena Blake will host an address called Protected by Dykes, outlining how to adopt a dyke approach to the ongoing environmental crisis. This will be followed by the Conference Closing and Final Plenary later that evening with Illaria Todde, Grace En-yi Ting, Melissa Mora Hidalgo, Sambhavi Varadajan and Amy Hasset, chaired by Katherine O’Donnell.

The official conference takes place on Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16, with one and two-day tickets available. For those sticking around on Sunday, there will be various free, non-ticketed and non-academic events taking place across Cork City. Check out the full programme here.

As an international event, it draws speakers and participants from every continent. Lesbian Lives was hosted in New York in 2025, Brighton in 2024 and last took place in Cork in 2022.

Ahead of the 2026 edition, organisers shared, “Lesbian Lives makes a return to UCC, building on our last conference there in 2022, which was the first conference to return to campus after the Covid years — the sun shone, a community formed and new and old connections got energised. We’re looking forward to more of the same next week.”

Lesbian Lives has been running since 1993, with guiding values of accessibility, diversity, dialogue and inclusive welcome. With over 30 years under its belt, Sara Ahmed explained why the conference is so vital and long-lasting: “Lesbian Lives is still going no doubt in part because of how it is radical and open, queer and trans affirming.” While its primary focus is on lesbian studies, creativity and activism, the conference is open to people of all identities.