Study of Women and Gender 270 - Colloquium: Oral History and Lesbian Subjects

Grounding our work in the current scholarship in lesbian history, this course explores lesbian, queer and bisexual communities, cultures and activism. While becoming familiar with the existing narratives about lesbian/queer lives, students are introduced to the method of oral history as a key documentation strategy in the production of lesbian history. How do we need to adapt our research methods, including oral history, in order to talk about lesbian/queer lives? Our texts include secondary literature on 20th-century lesbian cultures and communities, oral history theory and methodology, and primary sources from the Sophia Smith Collection (SSC). Students conduct, transcribe, edit and interpret their own interviews for their final project. The oral histories from this course are archived with the Documenting Lesbian Lives collection in the SSC. Prerequisite: SWG 150 or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 20.