Roundtable: New Approaches to Transgender History/ies

Berkshire Conference on the History of Women 2011Fifteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women
Saturday, June 11, 2011

Report by Ellen Zitani

During a Saturday afternoon session, attended by approximately 50 people, we held a roundtable discussion on the methods of doing transgender history. Organized by Shane Landrum, a Ph.D. candidate in American History at Brandeis University, the roundtable’s participants included Landrum; Brenda Marston, an archivist for Cornell University Library’s collection on the history of sexuality; Raymond Rea, Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Minnesota State University (Moorhead); and Ellen Zitani, a Ph.D. candidate in European History from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. Ellen also served as moderator/chair. Continue reading

Leatherwomen’s Histories: International Perspectives from Academic and Public Historians

Berkshire Conference on the History of Women 2011Fifteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women
Saturday, June 11, 2011

Report by Alex Warner

I had the honor and pleasure of chairing the first panel on Leather history at the Berks. The panel included presentations by three scholars: myself, Alex Warner (Rutgers Ph.D., 2011), Andrea Zanin (Ph.D. student, York University) and Jennifer Tyburczy (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Rice University), and a response by public historian Sarah Humble (founder of the Women’s Leather History Project). It was followed by a lively question-and-answer period and was well received by those in attendance. Continue reading

Roundtable: Lesbian Generations

Berkshire Conference on the History of Women 2011Fifteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women
Friday, June 10, 2011

Report by Leisa Meyer

Leisa Meyer, Chair; Participants: Evelyn Blackwood, Nan Alamilla Boyd, Matt Richardson, Leila J. Rupp, Susan Stryker, Ruth Vanita, Martha Vicinus

The “Lesbian Generations” Roundtable was framed by a series of questions posed to all participants, which focused on the definitions and meanings of “lesbian” as an identity, experience, and idea historically and transnationally. Continue reading

Race, Sexuality, Gender and the Body in Early-Twentieth-Century American Culture

Berkshire Conference on the History of Women 2011Fifteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women
Friday, June 10, 2011

Report by Chad Heap

I had the pleasure of commenting on the session, “Race, Sexuality, Gender and the Body in Early-Twentieth-Century American Culture.” Matthew Guterl (Indiana University, Bloomington) chaired the session. Kathleen B. Casey (University of Rochester) presented a paper, entitled, “‘She Is What She Ain’t’: Lillyn Brown and the Meaning of Black Male Impersonation”; and Cookie Woolner (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) delivered a paper on “Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey’s ‘Prove It on Me Blues’ and the Dialectics of Queer Popular Culture.” Continue reading

Utility/Necessity: The Enduring Relevance of Lesbian Identities

Berkshire Conference on the History of Women 2011Fifteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women
Thursday, June 9, 2011

Report by Marc Stein

Approximately sixty people attended this session, which focused on the ongoing relevance and usefulness of the category “lesbian” in historical scholarship on women. Continue reading

CLGBTH at the Fifteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women

Berkshire Conference on the History of Women 2011Committee members participated in a nearly a dozen sessions on LGBTQ history at the 2011 Big Berks, held at the University of Massachusetts June 9-12. Those unable to attend can now read reports from a number of those sessions on our Conference Reports page. Sessions covered include “Queering the College Campus,” “Tomboys and the Heritage of Gender Nonconformity in the United States, 1850s-1960,” “Utility/Necessity: The Enduring Relevance of Lesbian Identities,” “Race, Sexuality, Gender and the Body in Early-Twentieth-Century American Culture,” and the “Lesbian Generations” roundtable.

Tomboys and the Heritage of Gender Nonconformity in the United States, 1850s-1960

Berkshire Conference on the History of Women 2011Fifteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women
Friday, June 10, 2011

Report by Ann Fabian

I commented on the session “Tomboys and the Heritage of Gender Nonconformity in the United States, 1850s-1960.” Anne Scott McLeod chaired the session. Renee Sentilles (Case Western) read a paper on “Tomboys, Girl Sports and Western Pulp Fiction, 1860s-1900”; Kristen Proehl (William and Mary) read hers on “Sympathetic Alliances: Tomboys, ’Sissy Boys,’ and Queer Friendship in Literature of the American South, 1940s-1960”; and Allison Miller (Rutgers) spoke about her work on “American Tomboys in the Age of Penis Envy: Bodies, Gender Affinity, and Childhood, 1920s-1930.” Continue reading

After Homosexual: The Legacy of Gay Liberation

An International Conference
February 2-4, 2012
Melbourne, Australia

Hosted by the Gender, Sexuality and Diversity Program at La Trobe University
In conjunction with the Australian Lesbian & Gay Archives and Midsumma

Deadline: August 5, 2011

Keynote Speakers:
Professor Jeffrey Weeks, London Southbank University
Additional speakers to be confirmed

Forty years ago, a young Australian expat living in the USA synthesised the politics of the emerging gay liberation movement in a provocative book called Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation. Continue reading

Queering the College Campus

Berkshire Conference on the History of Women 2011Fifteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women
Friday, June 10, 2011

Report by Nick Syrett

I had the distinct pleasure of chairing this session devoted to queer students, professors, and their classes in the twentieth-century United States. Continue reading

CLGBTH affiliate session on LGBT identity, medicine, and health

Deadline: February 15, 2011

I am putting together a panel for the 2012 AHA LGBT program that explores the intersection of LGBT identity, medicine, and health. The relationship between sexuality, health, and medicine is complex and includes topics such as AIDS, psychiatry, sex work, and pregnancy to name a few. This panel will examine how medicine shapes identity among sexual minorities over time and conversely, how sexual minorities inform medical practice and understandings of health in the 20th century. Depending on responses, I am open to including papers with a transnational focus.

Continue reading