OutHistory and the Past, Present, and Future of a Queer Public History Website

AHA Session 149
LGBTQ+ History Association (formerly CLGBTH) 8
Saturday, January 4, 2025: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM
Beekman Room (New York Hilton, Second Floor)
Chair:
Marc R. Stein, San Francisco State University
Panel:
Moira Armstrong, Rutgers University–Newark
Brian Blackmore, American Friends Service Committee
Tyler Carson, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Corey Clawson, Rutgers University–Newark
Zach Greenberg, San Francisco State University
Philip Harrison, film director
Jonathan Ned Katz, OutHistory
Bob Lederer, WBAI and OutFM
Phoenix Walker, Western Washington University
This lightning round will feature short presentations by community-based historians, academic historians (ranging from MA students to full professors), and a documentary film director, followed by active audience participation.

Session Abstract

This experimental session focuses on OutHistory, the award-winning LGBTQ+ public history website founded by community-based historian Jonathan Ned Katz in 2008, directed by San Francisco State University historian Marc Stein, and advised by a diverse set of twenty academic and community-based historians in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. We first hope to revisit the history of the website, which has published more than 200 historical exhibits, by featuring a short presentation by Katz (5-10 minutes) and screening a short clip of a documentary in progress titled Do You Know Jonathan Ned Katz? by director Philip Harrison (5-10 minutes). Stein, the session chair and moderator, will briefly introduce new exhibits launched in 2023 and 2024 (5-10 minutes). We then envision more of a lightning session round in which recent fellows, interns, volunteers, and contributors will provide five-minute overviews of their work. This will include intern Moira Armstrong (a Rutgers-Newark PhD student, working currently on a project about people with disabilities in the pre-Stonewall homophile movement and a Newark queer history project), research assistant Zach Greenberg (San Francisco State University M.A. student, working currently on a project about San Francisco State and an inventory of LGBTQ direct action protests), and contributor Phoenix Walker (Western Washington University M.A. student, working currently on a project about trans sex workers in Vancouver). We also plan to invite the winners of OutHistory’s first fellowship competition, but since the four fellows will not be selected until March 1, we are not able to supply their names and affiliations in time for the AHA annual meeting proposal deadline. We will leave ample time for audience discussion and participation, guided by a set of questions about LGBTQ+ history, public history, and community engagement.
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