2nd Annual
Queer History South
Network & Conference
Archives for All, Y’all
Best Practices for Digital Access & Community Networking
Dallas, Texas

About Queer History South
QUEER HISTORY SOUTH is a vehicle for locating and sharing the rich, but often under-documented history of southern contributions to LGBTQ history and society.

QHS embraces the direct connection between sharing our stories and inspiring present-day activism. It strengthens our movement to know we are a part of the long legacy of American history and activism.

Who We Are
Queer History South is a network of professional and community members invested in preserving and promoting LGBTQ archiving and history in the US South. The primary purpose of QHS is to provide networking, professional development, and best practices for those directly working (formally or informally, professionally or communally) in the fields of Southern LGBTQ histories, archives, exhibits, historical research, and historical education. QHS meets every two years at a different location across the South.

Who Can Attend
QHS is open to anyone interested but will be of particular interest to archivists, historians, students, faculty, researchers, public historians, oral historians, and community organizations invested in preserving local histories. QHS has attendance from across the US, but primarily focuses on 13 Southern states: Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Conference Schedule
8:00am – 9:00am | Registration
Sign-In & Vaccination Verification |
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9:00am – 10:30am | Opening
Welcome and Overview of the Conference Speaker Bio: Moe Vela has been named one of the “Top 100 Hispanics in America” by Hispanic Business magazine and was twice named one of the “101 Most Influential Latinos” by Latino Leaders magazine, as well as, one of Washington’s Top 300 Insiders by the National Journal. He was also named to the Powermeter 100—the Washington area’s most influential individuals for Hispanic Communities by El Tiempo Latino, a Washington Post Company publication. Vela is the CEO of MoeVela, LLC , a strategic business advisory firm, and Founder of The Vela Group, LLC, a global business development consulting firm. Additionally, he is Of Counsel/Senior Advisor at the law firm of Stein Mitchell Beato and Missner and the Principal Advisor at TransparentBusiness. His most recent endeavor is the the co-creation, co-production, and co-star of the streaming-TV series Unicorn Hunters. Vela is also the author of the best selling book, Little Secret, Big Dreams: Pink and Brown in the White House, an auto-biography detailing Vela’s upbringing in a Hispanic Catholic home in Texas, his coming out story, and his journey to the White House. |
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10:45am – 11:45am | Block 1
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11:45am – 1:15pm | Student Poster Session and Lunch | ||||||||||||||
1:30pm – 2:30pm | Block 2
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2:45pm – 3:45pm | Block 3
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4:00pm – 5:00pm | Block 4
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5:00pm – 7:00pm | Break | ||||||||||||||
7:00pm | Evening Options
Visit the LGBT Historical Marker at the Gay Crossroads |
9:00am – 10:15am | Opening and Plenary Plenary Speaker: Mandy Carter Speaker Bio: Mandy Carter was born in Albany, New York in 1948 and relocated to North Carolina in 1982 after working for the War Resisters League (WRL) in California. There she worked at WRL’s southeast office and served on the planning committee for the annual Lesbian and Gay Pride march. In the early 1990s, Carter was a public policy advocate for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Carter is the co-founder of Southerners on New Ground, the National Black Justice Coalition, and Equality North Carolina. She was one of two openly LGBTQ speakers at the 2003 Lincoln Memorial Rally for the 40th Anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and was on the national steering coordinator for the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Carter was nominated as one of the “1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005.” She was honored with the 2006 Spirit of Justice Award from Boston’s Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and the Anderson Prize Foundation’s Susan J. Hyde Longevity Award in 2008.In addition to being inducted into the LGBT Hall of Fame by the International Federation of Black Prides (now The Center for Black Equity) in 2012, Carter was a 2013 recipient of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation’s Vicki Sexual Freedom Award for her human rights work. The collection of Mandy Carter papers from 1970 through 2013 is held at Duke University Libraries. |
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10:30am – 11:30am | Block 5
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11:45am – 1:15pm | Resource and Expo Lunch | ||||||||||||||
1:30pm – 3:00pm | Introduction to and Overview of The University of North Texas LGBTQ Archives with Morgan Gieringer | ||||||||||||||
3:15pm – 5:00pm | Facilitated Affinity Sessions | ||||||||||||||
5:00pm – 6:00pm | Break | ||||||||||||||
6:00pm – 9:00pm |
Evening Event: Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum Doors open at 6:00 pm, Sunset 6:37 pm, Bar opens at 6:39 pm |
9:00am | Closing Day Session Welcome Spoken Word with Niecee X VideoOut: Busting Misconceptions about the Queer South: An IHP and VideoOut Production Plenary Speakers: Historical Texas LGBTQ Legal Panel moderated by Mike Anglin |
Pricing & Registration
The below pricing is for those who register in 2021.
On January 1, 2022, registration costs will increase.
Institutional Support Full Conference
For those with institutional financial support
Coffee Breaks
Plenaries
Breakout Sessions
Evening Events
Lunch
Students
Full Conference Attendance
Limited to 50 Attendees
Coffee Breaks
Plenaries
Breakout Sessions
Evening Events
Lunch
Non-institutional Support Full Conference
For those without institutional financial support
Coffee Breaks
Plenaries
Breakout Sessions
Evening Events
Lunch
Community Participant
Morning Plenary Sessions
Evening Events
Sunday Closing Events
Delayed Broadcast
Recorded Plenaries
Recorded Sunday Closing
Select Sessions Recording
Available Two Weeks After In-Person
Queer History South 2022 Delayed Broadcast Schedule
Title/Presenter | Description |
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The Old Lesbian Herstory Project Arden Eversmeyer |
“We had never held hands out in public, but before they put her in the ambulance, I kissed Bobbie on the forehead whispered that I loved her.” When interviewed for the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project (OLOHP), Jean, born 1927, talked about losing Bobbie. They’d been together for more than 35 years, living in rural Texas and had never show affection towards each other in public. Although many things have changed for lesbians now, it is essential that we remember and honor the lives of the women who came before us, living during a time when there were no books or magazines and no organizations, when being homosexual was classified as a disease for which you might be institutionalized, when simply dancing at a bar with another woman might land you in jail. Some historians were trying to tell the story of these women, but it was always their interpretation of the story. The Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project has worked for more than 20 years to document and preserve the life stories of lesbians 70 and older. The OLOHP presentation will not only tell you about the Project and how it works, it will include a few readings of excerpts taken from their collection of 700+ interviews. |
Archival Exhibits Jaimi Parker |
This presentation demonstrates the basics of archival exhibit creation from concept creation, text editing and layout, material mounting, to final layout and installation. It will show simple inexpensive techniques that will allow archivists to create a professional looking exhibit, that is up to archival standards, and which is easy for visitors to digest. |
Invisible Histories Project: How IHP is Working to Save LGBTQ History in the Deep South Dr. Maigen Sullivan & Josh Burford |
The Invisible Histories Project is a 501©3 nonprofit based in Birmingham, AL that locates, preserves, researches and makes community accessible the rich and diverse history of LGBTQ people in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. IHP acts as an intermediary between institutions like universities, libraries, museums, and archives and LGBTQ people and organizations. Join us for this presentation on the history of IHP, an overview of the IHP model, and a discussion on the challenges faced in developing and implementing a public history and community archiving project and nonprofit in the Deep South. |
Mapping Trans Joy Sophia Ziegler, Nathalie Nia Faulk, and SK Groll |
This presentation describes a project to collect and share stories of trans joy across Louisiana. The Louisiana Trans Oral History Project, together with Last Call Oral History Project, are creating a online mapping tool to enable trans and gender non-conforming (TGNC) individuals from across the state to contribute audio and video narratives, specifying places that are personally important to them as sites of trans joy. For our purposes, a place of trans joy can include any location that individuals feel included, loved or honored, as well as places where significant personal or communal events happened. Collectively, these narratives will create rich documentation of one of Louisiana’s most marginalized communities. |
Queer Persistence in the Archives Dr. Amy L. Stone |
This presentation explores the necessity for persistence in archival research, particularly archival research outside of conventional archives. I focus on queer geographies of the South, relational persistence, and emotional investments during a research project on LGBTQ involvement in citywide festivals in the urban South and Southwest. |
Outrageous Oral Robert Emery |
Outrageous Oral is the most entertaining aspect of The Dallas Way. Speakers from all walks of LGBT+ life present their personal stories. They may seem improvised, but they are not. They are personal, vulnerable, and compelling. They are intimate, funny, poignant, encouraging, heartbreaking, and captivating. Ultimately, they are celebratory. Over 100 personal LGBT+ stories have been shared thus far. This break-out session focuses on how to produce an Outrageous Oral event from speakers to marketing, all the way through permanently storing them in an LGBT+ archive. |
Using Archives in “Queericulums” Dr. Aaron Elkins |
Given that queer culture and history are not taught in a comprehensive fashion in the United States public education system, queer youths, young adults, and adults are effectively left to situate themselves within such cultural and historical narratives as they choose to construct; as a result, these constructed narratives may be incomplete and value hegemonic culture and history over accuracy. How does the idea of using queer community archives to prepare a “queericulum” that presents a more inclusive and comprehensive depiction of queer culture and history interact with the notions of queer liberation? How can we use counter stories about queer history and culture in queer community archives to more effectively work towards dismantling white supremacy and patriarchy in the queer community and in mainstream society? |
On Naiad Press of Tallahassee, Florida: Exploring the Balance between Shared Authority and Social Justice in Queer Public History Dr. Michael Franklin and RaeAnn Quick |
This presentation will use our work on a public history project about Naiad Press – an internationally prominent lesbian publishing company located in Tallahassee, Florida, from 1980 to 2003 – to think about legacies of racial segregation in queer spaces, as well as the ethics of framing a majority-white lesbian community’s history through oral history research. |
Cruising for Queer Histories Outside of the Gay Bar Alexis Rodriguez and David Matteson |
In 2021, the LGBTQ History Museum of Central Florida celebrated its 16th anniversary, a milestone representing persistent collaboration between community members and university historians to interpret the region’s queer past. Recently, the Museum has expanded its preservation efforts to locate instances of queer community building that occurred outside of gay bars and nightclubs. This presentation will address the challenges of the Museum’s evolution by focusing on two specific cases: an archiving effort to document regional LGBTQ sports leagues and an exhibition that wrestled with the shifting generational perspectives on what defines a “queer space.” Though gay bars have long represented a “safe haven” for the LGBTQ community, the future of these spaces is precarious – as evidenced in Orlando with the 2020 closure of the iconic Parliament House after operating for 45 years. Given this shifting landscape, how might queer historiography adapt to reflect a more nuanced understanding of community beyond its traditional preoccupation with barroom legends? What are the spaces (and the people who find belonging within them) that we have neglected in our interpretation of the queer past and how can new collecting endeavors address these oversights? In addition to reflecting upon these questions, the presentation will contribute to a larger reimagining of queer theory to be more radically inclusive within public history scholarship and praxis. |
Covid-19 Policy
You will be required to show proof of vaccination at registration in order to receive your nametag that will allow you into sessions and events.
Additionally, Dallas College, our host institution, requires all students, faculty, and visitors to wear masks while on campus
Plan Your Stay
Host Hotel: The Westin Dallas Downtown
Rates range from $149 – $249 per night
Learn More About Dallas
QHS 2022: Archives for All, Y’all is brought to you by the collaborative effort of:
A huge thank you to our amazing sponsors! This conference could not happen without their support.

AT&T

Humanities Texas

Dallas Holocaust & Human Rights Museum

The University of North Texas Libraries

The Dallas Way

Summerlee Foundation
Robert
Walker
Emery

University of Houston Libraries
William
Waybourn
Jay
Oppenheimer
Tom Phipps and Rick Aishman

Southern Methodist University Libraries

University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries

Southwestern University

Hollinger Metal Edge

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Department of History

The University of North Texas Division of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library

Rice University Fondren Library



Rice University Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality



Rice University Fondren Library



Rice University Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
QHS Strives to Keep Attendance Costs Low for Socio-Economic Access
If you find the cost of attendance prohibitive or, want to help donate to sponsor attendance for someone else, please fill out this form
Register Now!
QUEER HISTORY SOUTH is a vehicle for locating and sharing the rich, but often under-documented history of southern contributions to LGBTQ history and society. QHS embraces the direct connection between sharing our stories and inspiring present-day activism. It strengthens our movement to know we are a part of the long legacy of American history and activism.