How to Queer Public History: A Guided Discussion

AHA Session 93
Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History 4
Friday, January 5, 2024: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Cyril Magnin III (Parc 55, Fourth)
Officials:
Jennifer Brier, University of Illinois at Chicago
Julio Capo Jr., Florida International University
Kevin P. Murphy, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Chair:
Jennifer Brier, University of Illinois at Chicago

Session Abstract

In this GUIDED DISCUSSION, three seasoned practitioners of queer history, public history and queer public history, all of whom work at public institutions, will lead and facilitate an open conversation with attendees interested in developing their own practices, methods, and approaches or introduce possible work they are currently undertaking or seeking to undertake at the intersections of queer public history. We envision “public history” work here in a most capacious manner that makes room for a variety of public-facing and community-collaborative works –from film to museum curation to writing op-ed pieces and more. We seek to have frank and community-oriented discussions about how we convey histories of transgressive or non-normative gender and sexual expressions at the intersection of race, ethnicity, class, age, ability, and nation for a wide-range of publics, certainly beyond the traditional academy.

Discussion topic could include: what it means to “queer” public history; how to engage with community partners and share marginalized stories in safer and non-extractive ways; how to relay complex and often theoretical concepts in accessible ways; how to work with mainstream and non-LGBTQ spaces and venues in doing this work, among many others.

Jennifer Brier will discuss her curatorial work on the history of HIV, which includes working for the National Library of Medicine to produce one of the government agency’s most popular traveling exhibitions, Surviving and Thriving: AIDS, Politics, and Culture, and building a community-based traveling exhibition and website on the living women’s history of HIV that engaged women living with HIV in a multi-year collaborative process. She will also serve as chair of the session.

Julio Capó, Jr. will discuss his experiences as a regular contributor and associate editor of the Made by History section of The Washington Post as well as the curator of Queer Miami: A History of LGBTQ Communities (2019, HistoryMiami Museum) and co-curator of Messages from a Pandemic: AIDS Graphic Communication (2021-Present, The Wolfsonian–FIU).

Kevin P. Murphy will discuss his work as a facilitator and participant in queer oral history projects including the Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project and the Aliveness Oral History Project as well as his experience in practicing queer public history pedagogy.

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