The Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Workshop Series presents, "Queer Twin Cities: A Methodological Round Table Discussion by the Collaborators", on Friday, March 25th at 2:00 p.m. in the Susan Geiger Room in Ford Hall. Round Table Participants: Michael David Franklin (American Studies), Kevin Murphy (History), Ryan Murphy (American Studies), Jennifer L. Pierce (American Studies), and Alex Urquhart (American Studies).
GWSS Workshop Series - "Queer Twin Cites: A Methodological Round Table Discussion by the Collaborators"
Combining the work of 12 scholars, writers, and activists whose lives have intersected in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Queer Twin Cities makes two major contributions to LGBT history. First, the book demonstrates that Twin Cities had its own active and visible movement of LGBT people who fought for rights and created a political movement that was both connected to and unique from those on the coast. In doing so, the volume challenges assumptions that that Minnesota's history has followed a normative gendered and sexual trajectory in contrast to coastal metropolitan areas' seemingly more dynamic and radical past. Queer Twin Cities' second contribution examines how sexuality, particularly in its transgressive expressions, has shaped people's lives in the Twin Cities from the late nineteenth century to the present. By sexuality, we refer not only to a range of identities -- straight, queer, lesbian, gay, femme, transgender, and bisexual among others--but also to a range of meanings, desires, norms, behaviors, and relationships that operate within regimes of power across time and place. Rather than treating identities or communities as singular and historically coherent--as in "the gay community"--the book's chapters illuminate how sexual politics have organized social relationships in differing and contradictory ways over time.
The roundtable presentation will focus on several key methodological issues in writing this book: 1) The project's unusual editorial method, that is the challenge in having so many junior scholars involved in the project. This is also related to how interdisciplinarity influenced the process of developing the project and the book. 2) Our goal of reaching public audiences and how that aim shaped the project; and 3) The challenges associated with oral history methodology, including the IRB approval process.
Round Table Participants: Michael David Franklin (American Studies), Kevin Murphy (History), Ryan Murphy (American Studies), Jennifer L. Pierce (American Studies), and Alex Urquhart (American Studies)
