Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

WGS Archival Project

Posted on 03/10/2020

In WGS 270 Intro to LGBTQ Studies, Dr. Carrie Hart designed an Archival Project to help students learn about the history of the LGBTQ community in Greensboro?. Dr. Hart realized that students do not know much about this history and there was a need for them to educate themselves on its rich background. Since there is a misconception that the LGBTQ community is “new” due to its increasing visibility today, the archival project aimed to change that narrative and show that the LGBTQ history extends long before it became so evident. The students decide on the focus of? their own projects and determine how they wanted to present their findings to the public.

This project strives to make WGS 270 more powerful by helping the students apply feminist ideas to research. The course is not a historical survey, so it can be frustrating for some students because they do not know about the central historical figures and moments of LGBTQ history in Greensboro or elsewhere. Dr. Hart and her classes work with the librarians at UNCG and use primary sources. Dr. Hart says the way to tell history is by students creating a narrative, recognizing and being aware of their biases.

Dr. Hart is open to consolidating the projects to have them all live together in one place for others to see and maybe carry on. It is important to Dr. Hart that the students see themselves as researchers and feel connected to their work. She would like to see the history of the LGBTQ community as one that extends beyond UNCG and goes back decades. She would like her students see the importance of acknowledging how hard people fought for LGBTQ self-determination. When the students do the research, it demystifies the process of change making, helping them to see how they could themselves effect change in their communities and the world at large. In closing, Dr. Hart viewed this project as one about connectedness with people and places in the past and in the present. She says “feeling connectedness is powerful in helping with hopelessness and cynicism.”

by Gloria Mujinga Mukeni, WGSS Major, Class of 2020

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