Semester:
Offered:
Instructor: Lauren Kaminsky
Meeting time: Wednesday, 9:45-11:45 am
Queer histories are all around us, but rarely do they announce themselves as such. This research seminar offers training in archival methods with a focus on historical subjects who deviate from dominant historical narratives. In centering “queer” archival traces, we will read along the grain with dissident voices representing minoritized gender and sexual subjectivities, while also cultivating a practice of reading against the grain as a way of attending to the exclusionary operations of representational practices. This course will be taught in and draw on the Schlesinger Library’s extraordinary collections, and much of our class time will be spent exploring materials that can only be accessed on site. This course requires no prior knowledge or experience, and assignments will culminate in an essay based on original archival research.