2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

In 2015, an international and interdisciplinary team of researchers launched an exhibit on homophile internationalism on Outhistory, the LGBT website founded by Jonathan Katz. The online archive and exhibit features annotated bibliographies, digitized materials, and introductory essays on U.S. homophile magazine references to, representations of, and contributions from other parts of the world. The exhibit focuses on 1953-1964 and addresses three of the most important U.S. homophile magazines of the era: ONE, Mattachine Review, and The Ladder.  The regions highlighted include (1) Africa; (2) Asia/Pacific; (3) Canada; (4) Latin America/Caribbean; (5) the Middle East; and (6) Russia/Soviet Union/Eastern Europe.

            The proposed roundtable will feature the researchers who developed the exhibit. It will consider the following questions: (1) what does the exhibit reveal about U.S. homophile magazine references to, representations of, and contributions from other parts of the world, (2) what does this tell us about U.S. LGBT relationships to Cold War politics, colonialism, nationalism, Orientalism, and racism, (3) how might this historical project contribute to debates and discussions about homonationalism, queer nationalism, and trans nationalism, (4) how might the exhibit be used by activists, scholars, and others interested in the United States, other countries and regions, and transnational and international relationships, (5) how does the exhibit function as a public history project; (6) what are the limitations of the exhibit in general and its online character in particular, and (7) how did the interdisciplinary, transnational, and collective character of the research team influence the project?