Adam J. Lewis, a postdoctoral fellow in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies at Grinnell College, and Michelle O'Brien, a doctoral candidate in sociology at New York University will discuss how the NYC Trans Oral History Project (NYC TOHP)—a collective-run, community archive committed to oral history as anti-oppression work—has attempted to develop a trans oral history that intervenes against processes of institutionalization, including instances in which the project has pushed back against certain traditional conceptions of "best practices" in oral history research. 

The talk will be held in 308 Gilman. Lunch will be provided. 

The talk will draw from the model developed by the NYC TOHP as a case study in the politics of oral history methods and best practices. The NYC TOHP has been particularly indebted to activist and scholarly critiques of the politics of institutionalization, which directly impacts trans communities in at least three basic, interrelated contexts: the instutionalizationof social justice with the ascendance of the so-called "Nonprofit Industiral Complex;" the longer, often exploitative, history of instituonal research initiatives on trans communities; and more recently the institutionalization of minority difference under neoliberal multiculturalism—a conjuncture sometimes referred to in the context of trans issues as the "transgender tipping point."

Sponsored by the Winston Tabb Special Collections Research Center in the Sheridan Libraries; the Program in Museums and Society; the Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality; the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute; and LGBTQ Life.

For additional information please contact Joseph Plaster, curator in public humanities at the Sheridan Libraries.