Contagious History: Affect and Identification in Queer Public History Exhibitions

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dc.contributor.advisorMitchell, Allyson Amy
dc.creatorDe Szegheo Lang, Tamara Ondine Elisabeth
dc.date.accessioned2018-08-27T16:35:19Z
dc.date.available2018-08-27T16:35:19Z
dc.date.copyright2018-04-06
dc.date.issued2018-08-27
dc.date.updated2018-08-27T16:35:19Z
dc.degree.disciplineWomen's Studies
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractFor LGBTQ people, history is never simply the past, what has passed, or what is dead and gone. Uncovering neglected LGBTQ pasts has been heralded not only as a project for historians but as an explicitly political endeavour. Histories that document LGBTQ lives and cultures have not traditionally been included in school curricula, collected in government archives, or passed down through family narration. Instead, their development and dissemination have been taken on primarily by LGBTQ individuals and communities themselves. This dissertation examines how community-based LGBTQ archives and public history projects reach out to broad publics. It focuses on the role of affect, feeling, and emotion in fostering interest in and connection to these histories. This dissertation explores three sites: the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History (Brooklyn, New York), the GLBT History Museum (San Francisco, California), and the site-specific art exhibition, Land|Slide Possible Futures, which was exhibited at the Markham Museum and Heritage Village in 2013 (Markham, Ontario). Research at these sites involved analyzing exhibits in terms of both content and form, interviewing curators and others involved in creating the exhibits, and writing reflective field notes. These three sites speak to a contagious public history that is necessarily critical. This is because contagious public history questions dominant historical narratives, demonstrates the construction of historical narratives and public history exhibitions, and questions traditional forms of expertise. This work highlights three factors that enable this form of public history: the encouragement of amateur historians; the use of objects in relationship-formation; and the creation of affective atmospheres. As a whole, this dissertation argues that there is much we can learn from community-based LGBTQ archives and public history projects. It insists that considerations of affect and emotion are central, not incidental, to a critical public history project. Though this work focuses primarily on representations of LGBTQ history, its contributions can reach into other areas because affect and emotion are central to all public history, whether or not they are recognized explicitly. History is political, but it is also emotional.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/34987
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectHistory
dc.subject.keywordsSexuality studies
dc.subject.keywordsQueer theory
dc.subject.keywordsQueer temporalities
dc.subject.keywordsGender studies
dc.subject.keywordsFeminist theory
dc.subject.keywordsHistory
dc.subject.keywordsHistory of sexuality
dc.subject.keywordsLGBTQ history
dc.subject.keywordsQueer history
dc.subject.keywordsMuseums
dc.subject.keywordsCommunity-based archives
dc.subject.keywordsAffect theory
dc.subject.keywordsEmotion
dc.subject.keywordsAmateurism
dc.subject.keywordsPublic feelings
dc.subject.keywordsPublic art
dc.subject.keywordsSexuality
dc.subject.keywordsQueer
dc.subject.keywordsLGBT
dc.subject.keywordsGLBT
dc.subject.keywordsLGBTQ
dc.subject.keywordsGLBTQ
dc.subject.keywordsPop-Up Museum of Queer History
dc.subject.keywordsGLBT History Museum
dc.subject.keywordsLandSlide Possible Futures
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
dc.subject.keywordsLesbian Herstory Archives
dc.subject.keywordsONE National Lesbian and Gay Archives
dc.titleContagious History: Affect and Identification in Queer Public History Exhibitions
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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