Querying the Past Student Research Assistantship

PI: Chapkis, Wendy (Women and Gender Studies and Sociology, University of Southern Maine)

Sector: Northeast Humanities, New Media

Partners: All Art Media

Abstract: The purpose of this project, “Querying the Past: Maine LGBTQ History,” is to preserve and make available the often-hidden history of LGBTQ Maine. The project involves the use of a variety of media including digital applications. Over the past two years, working with the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine/USM Special Collections, and community partners, the project has collected two dozen audio oral histories with key figures in Maine’s LGBTQ community and more than two hours of filmed material. In addition, student researchers have explored and analyzed material cultural artifacts in the Sampson Center’s LGBTQ Collection. All of these materials are (or are being) digitized with an eye to using them as content in future online applications.