The American Historical Association's 2012 Annual Meeting Jan. 5-8 will feature a diverse array of sessions on LGBTQ history, sponsored by the AHA Program Committee and AHA affiliate the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History.
Offerings include discussions of the challenges and opportunities of LGBTQ oral history and public history, a curator-led tour of the Chicago History Museum's exhibit on LGBTQ life in the city, and sessions discussing queer history in the context of sexuality, gender, medicine, urban history, race, and military history.
There is also an open forum sponsored by the AHA LGBTQ Historians Task Force on Friday, Jan. 6. Task force members will discuss the preliminary results of their survey of LGBTQ historians and historians who study LGBTQ topics and solicit feedback on plans for the final report they will submit to the AHA Council in June 2012.
See aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/EVENTS.html .
Thursday, January 5
2:30-5 p.m.: LAC Tour 4: Chicago History Museum: Out in Chicago
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7226.html
3-5 p.m. Session 1, joint with the Coordinating Council for Women in History.
The Politics of Respectability Reconsidered: Using the Framework of Respectability to Examine Southern Lesbian History
Chicago Marriott Downtown, River North Room.
Chair: Benjamin E. Wise, University of Florida
Papers: Respectability and Lesbian Motherhood: Sharon Bottoms and Linda Kaufman by Megan Shockley, Clemson University
Fashion and the Performance of Lesbian Feminist Identity by Janet L. Allured, McNeese State University
Activist or Apathetic? Lesbians and Bar Space in the PostWorld War II South by La Shonda Mims, University of Georgia
Comment: Carolyn Herbst Lewis, Louisiana State University
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7114.html
Friday, January 6
9:3011:30 a.m.: AHA Session 49, CLGBTH Session 2
Doing Queer History in the Twenty-First Century
Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, Erie Room. Session 2, joint with the AHA.
Chair: Marcia M. Gallo, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Panel: Jennifer Brier, University of Illinois at Chicago
John A. D'Emilio, University of Illinois at Chicago
E. Patrick Johnson, Northwestern University
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session6411.html
2:30 p.m.: CLGBTH Session 3
The Queer Politics of Managing Youth and Sex in the 1920s United States
Marriott Downtown, Michigan State Room. Session 3.
Chair: Amanda H. Littauer, Northern Illinois University
Papers: Wayward Sexualities, Delinquent Mentalities, and Early Twentieth-Century Youth Experts by Don Romesburg, Sonoma State University
Child Marriage and Contests over Non-Normative Sexuality in the 1920s by Nicholas L. Syrett, University of Northern Colorado
Therapeutic Discipline and Queer Youth in a School forDelinquent Girls, c. 1926 by Allison Miller, Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Comment: Amanda H. Littaue
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7116.html
4:45-5:45 p.m., Sheraton Parlor E
LGBTQ Historians Task Force Open Forum
Chair: Leisa D. Meyer, College of William and Mary
Panel: Jennifer Brier, University of Illinois at Chicago
Marc Stein, York University
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7195.html
7-9 p.m., Chicago Marriott Ballroom
CLGBTH Joint reception with the Coordinating Council for Women in History and the Peace History Society.
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session6984.html
Saturday, January 7
9-11 a.m. AHA Session 129, CLGBTH Session 4
Twentieth Century Queer and Artistic Bohemias
Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, Michigan Room A. Session 4, joint with the AHA
Chair: Daniel Hurewitz, Hunter College, City University of New York
Papers: Twilight of the Demimonde: Queer and Bohemian Radicalism and the "Liberation" of the Black Market Economy in Greenwich Village, Christopher Adam Mitchell, Rutgers University-Newark
Young and Evil Bohemia: Sex, Art, and Identity in the Queer Atlantic, 193039, Thomas W. Hafer, City University of New York, Graduate Center
Blue Travel at the Crossroads: Curt Moreck's Guide to "Depraved" Berlin, 1931, H. Camilla Smith, University of Birmingham
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session6634.html
9-11 a.m.: CLGBTH Session 5
Building Community, Combating Phobia, Part 1: The Media's Narratives on "Patient Zero" and Gay Sex during the AIDS Epidemic
Chicago Marriott Downtown, Michigan State Room.
Chair: Chet DeFonso, Northern Michigan University
Communicative Contacts: Randy Shilts, Gaétan Dugas, and the Construction of the "Patient Zero" Myth, Richard A. McKay, King's College London
"Patient Zero" and the "Recalcitrant" Queer, Phil Tiemeyer, Philadelphia University
AIDS, the Religious Right, and Gay Sex in Late 1980s North Carolina, David C. Palmer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Comment: Ian Lekus, Harvard University
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session6545.html
9-11 a.m.: CLGBTH Session 5
Building Community, Combating Phobia, Part 1: The Media's Narratives on "Patient Zero" and Gay Sex during the AIDS Epidemic
Michigan State Room ( Chicago Marriott Downtown )
Chair: Chet DeFonso, Northern Michigan University
Papers: Communicative Contacts: Randy Shilts, Gaétan Dugas, and the Construction of the "Patient Zero" Myth, Richard A. McKay, King's College London
"Patient Zero" and the "Recalcitrant" Queer, Phil Tiemeyer, Philadelphia University
AIDS, the Religious Right, and Gay Sex in Late 1980s North Carolina, David C. Palmer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session6545.html
11:30 a.m.1:30 p.m. CLGBTH Session 6
Building Communities, Combating Phobia, Part II: LGBT Identity, Medicine, and Health
Chicago Marriott Downtown, Michigan State Room.
Chair: Leisa D. Meyer, College of William and Mary
Papers: Treating Men at a Lesbian Clinic: Identity Politics, Feminist Organizing, and Health Care Provision, 1979 to the Present, Judith A. Houck, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"I Want You for a Free VD Test": Making Sexual Health Part of Gay Identity in Chicago, 197481, Catherine Batza, University of Illinois at Chicago
Black Discos, AIDS, and the Harold Washington Administration: The Making of AIDS as a Black Gay Disease, 197585, Tristan D. Cabello, Bowdoin College
Politicking the Gay Cancer: Electoral Intransigence and the AIDS Response in Houston, John Goins, University of Houston
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7117.html
2:304:30 p.m. CLGBTH Session 7.
Bodies of Evidence: Queer Oral History Methods
Chicago Marriott Downtown, Clark Room.
Chair: Marcia M. Gallo, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Papers: Race, Class, Oral History, and the Liberation-Era Divide, Daniel W. Rivers, Emory University, Daniel W. Rivers, Emory University
Sharing Queer Authorities: Transgender Latina and Gay Latino Meanings, Horacio N. Roque Ramírez, University of California, Santa Barbara
Talking about Sex: Cheryl Gonzales and Rikki Streicher Tell Their Stories, Nan Alamilla Boyd, San Francisco State University
Private Lives and Public History: Excavating the Sexual Past in Queer Oral History, Jason Ruiz, University of Notre Dame
2:304:30 p.m. CLGBTH Session 8.
Race-ing the Sexual Revolution
Chicago Marriott Downtown, Michigan State Room.
Chair: Cathy Cohen, University of Chicago
Papers: The Racial Origins of Family Values Politics: Abortion and Busing in Michigan, 197080, Gillian Frank, Stony Brook University
Making the Second Gay Ghetto: The Whitening of Queer Chicago from Daley to Daley, Timothy Stewart-Winter, Rutgers University-Newark
Birth Control for the Masses: Experimenting Contraceptive Technologies in Asia, 1950s to 1960s, Aiko Takeuchi-Demirci, Brown University
Comment: Marc Stein, York University
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session6762.html
5-7 p.m.: Film: On These Shoulders We Stand
Sheraton Ballroom I
Glenne McElhinney, producer, writer, and director ( Impact Stories: California's LGBT History, 2009 ) . On These Shoulders We Stand is an illuminating historical account of gay life and activism in Los Angeles, told by the people who lived it. http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7287.html
Sunday, January 8
8:3010:30 a.m. AHA Session 229, CLGBTH Session 9, joint with the Coordinating Council for Women in History.
Sexing Up the "Long" 1950s, Part 1: New Narratives in U.S. Gender and Sexuality Studies
Chicago Marriott Downtown, Addison Room.
Chair: Vicki L. Eaklor, Alfred University
Papers: "A Polluted Playground": Gender, Sexuality, and the Consumption of Miami's Vice Culture, 194860, Julio Cap" Jr., Yale University
"Sex Anarchy" and Female Sexual "Delinquency": Young Women's Sexual Nonconformity in the 1950s United States, Amanda H. Littauer, Northern Illinois University
Queer Cities and Suburban Sin Clubs: Sexual Anxieties in American Scandal and Men's Pulp Magazines of the 1950s and 1960s, Tim Retzloff, Yale University
"Highway Girls": Sex Work Migration in the 1950s Rural South, Stephanie Chalifoux, University of Alabama
Comment: David K. Johnson, University of South Florida
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session6391.html
8:3010:30 a.m. CLGBTH Session 10
The Pleasures and Perils of LGBTQ Public History
Chicago Marriott Downtown, Michigan State Room.
Chair: Lauren Jae Gutterman, New York University
Papers: Sexuality and the Cities: Interdisciplinarity and the Politics of Queer Public History, Kevin P. Murphy, University of Minnesota
Creating OutHistory.org, Jonathan Ned Katz, OutHistory.org
Going Viral with Brick-and-Mortar Queer History: Opening the GLBT History Museum, Don Romesburg, Sonoma State University
Queer Histories of San Francisco's Tenderloin, Joey Plaster, Yale University; Megan Rohrer, Pacific School of Religion
Comment: Lauren Jae Gutterman, New York University
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7122.html
8:3010:30 a.m. CLGBTH Session 11, joint with the Coordinating Council for Women in History.
Ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Lessons Learned from Integrating Minorities and Women in the U.S. Military
Chicago Marriott Downtown, Iowa Room.
Chair: Douglas Walter Bristol Jr., University of Southern Mississippi
Papers: Making Integration Work: The U.S. Military's Race Relations Initiatives of the 1970s by Douglas Walter Bristol Jr.
Update on Ending the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Movement, by David Hall, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
Elusive Integration: The Challenges of Integrating Women into the U.S. Military by Tanya L. Roth, Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School
Does the Sex of the Practitioner Matter? Sex Discrimination, Nursing, and the Army Nurse Corps in the 1950s, by Charissa J. Threat, Northeastern University
Comment: The Audience
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7161.html
11 am.-1 p.m.: AHA Session 256, CLGBTH Session 12, joint with the Conference on Latin American History.
Sexing Up the "Long" 1950s, Part 2: Urban and Transnational Narratives in the Americas and Europe
Addison Room ( Chicago Marriott Downtown )
Chair: Anne Hardgrove, University of Texas at San Antonio
Papers: "The Gestapo Lives On": West German and American Gay Activists and the Politics of Memory, Nathan Andrew Wilson, York University
Going Global, Getting Personal: Transnational Lesbian Organizing and Relationships in the Long 1950s, Dasa Francikova, University of California, Santa Barbara
Family Life and the Formation of Modern Homosexual Identity in Argentina, Buenos Aires, 193060, Pablo E. Ben, University of Northern Iowa
Homosexual Narratives in the Long 1950s: The Mexican Case, Ryan M. Jones, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Comment: Tamara Chaplin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session6528.html
Chicago-related panels at AHA
Numerous sessions at AHA will feature the history of the Windy City.
Chicago '68: Rethinking Local Black Activism and the Battle for Urban America
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session6905.html
The Other Hull House Women: Female Community Building and Feminist Networking in Twentieth-Century America ( CCWH )
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session6993.html
Walking Tour of Historic Chicago Religious Sites ( ASCH )
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7106.html
Multi-racial, Multi-ethnic Chicago: Social Relations in the Twentieth-Century City
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session5896.html
In the Shadow of Hull House: Catholic Church Architecture on Chicago's Near West Side ( ACHA tour )
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7055.html
Chicago, the Capital of Polish America ( PAHA )
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7088.html
Catholicism in the City of the Big Shoulders ( ACHA )
http://aha.confex.com/aha/2012/webprogram/Session7063.html
Tours: http://historians.org/annual/2012/tours.cfm