Events

Queer and trans lives face renewed political assault, from book bans and anti-trans legislation to the defunding of LGBTQ+ research in these unprecedented times. Because of these attacks, archival work has never been more urgent. This webinar will explore how queer archives function not just as sites of preservation but as battlegrounds for cultural memory and political resistance. In an era when histories are being silenced and scholarship defunded, we ask: “What does it mean to keep queer stories alive? What forms of knowledge, intimacy, and defiance survive through the archive? And how do we build archives that not only remember the past but imagine more just futures?”

Panelists

• Michael Bronski, Professor of the Practice in Media and Activism in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University. He has been involved with LGBT politics since 1969 as an activist, organizer, writer, publisher, editor, and independent scholar.
• Rachael Dreyer, Head of Research Services and Associate Librarian at Penn State. She recently curated the exhibition, “Give us also the right to our existence: Collecting and Surfacing Queer Narratives", which was on display at Penn State University Libraries’ Eberly Family Special Collections Library.
• Kate Ozment is Associate Professor of English at California Polytechnic Pomona. She teaches Anglo-American book cultures, women’s writing, and digital humanities. She is also co-editor of the Women in Book History Bibliography and contributes to the Women’s Print History Project.

Moderator

• Claire Bourne, Associate Professor of English, Penn State.