The Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History

Fifteenth 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.” Read the rest of this entry →

Fifteenth 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. Read the rest of this entry →

Fifteenth 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.” Read the rest of this entry →

Fifteenth 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. Read the rest of this entry →

AHA Annual Meeting
Saturday, January 8, 2011

Report by Leila J. Rupp

This session offered three papers on different aspects of organizing around same-sex sexuality before the emergence of the contemporary gay liberation movement. Read the rest of this entry →

AHA Annual Meeting
Friday, January 7, 2011

Report by Lucinda Grinnell

This panel focused on lesbian and feminist activism and transnational organizing in the waning years of the Cold War. This was a period when the lesbian and feminist movements were engaged in complex ideological, strategic, and tactical battles about the direction and the focus of the movement in the United States, and when lesbian and gay activists were initiating political battles in Latin America in the context of authoritarian regimes as was the case in Mexico or within liberation struggles as was the case in Nicaragua.

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Oral History Association Annual Meeting
Saturday, October 30, 2010

Report by Wesley Chenault and Ian Lekus

The Oral History Association held its 2010 annual meeting October 27-31, in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference theme, “Times of Crisis, Times of Change: Human Stories on the Edge of Transformation,” brought focus to practices of collecting and sharing human stories and to the ways in which oral histories help communities and societies make sense of turning points and critical shifts. It was a fitting theme for queer histories and stories. Read the rest of this entry →