A "Desire for History": Building Queer Archives at the University of Chicago

How does queer studies engage with the archive? Since 2007, faculty and students affiliated with the University of Chicago’s Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality have worked to build archival collections documenting the experiences of women and LGBTQ individuals and communities at the University of Chicago. This lecture will give a brief history of the project’s origins in feminist and women’s history, and ask what it means to once-marginalized communities to have a place in the University archives. It will offer a first look at many of the items and oral history interviews that have been collected documenting LGBTQ life on campus from the era of Gay Lib to the present day. The presentation will be followed by a reception celebrating the Center’s newly renovated building on University Avenue.