One Century of Anarchist Sexual Politics in Global Perspective (1870-1970)

01/05/2026 to 01/05/2028

Anarchists have been a vanguard in challenging many aspects of gendered norms, sexual behaviour and the very concept of love since the late nineteenth century - while simultaneously reinforcing others, such as ideas of naturalness and heterosexuality. This project examines the interplay between love and politics in anarchist discourse and practices in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from the emergence of a self-identified anarchist movement in the early 1870s, to the mid-twentieth century, on a global scale. lt develops the first in-depth transnational analysis of how revolutionary love and sexuality have shaped the personal and life experiences of politically engaged individuals, as well as broader social debates on intimacy and its political meanings. By exploring the achievements and the failures of the anarchist movement through histories of transformative love practices and 'revolutionary lovers', the project critically assesses anarchist doctrines and practices in the past and their relevance today. lt will foreground anarchism's unique role in theorising the articulation between individual and collective emancipation, and set out a research agenda that confronts theories and practices, documents unheeded and silenced histories, and analyses the interconnections between the deeply personal and the political, contributing to a lively strand of radical history. Revolutionary Lovers therefore makes conceptual and empirical contributions to the history of anarchism, and to the wider social and cultural histories of gender, sexuality and love.

The global circulation of anarchist ideas and practices of sex and love remains largely unrecognised and lacks sustained and systematic analysis. This project embraces this challenge and opens up new research questions in emphasising the intertwining of the personal, political and global dimensions of anarchist sexual politics, and restoring the anarchists' sophisticated levels of criticism and reflection about the linkages between sex, gender, love and political repression and liberation. lt probes intimacies within and between different world regions and charts new geographical and emotional venues where love and intimacy were configured. lt will establish an international specialist network of five core participants, defining objectives to be taken up subsequently by a larger research team and community.