Draft Syllabus
Hands-on Research Sexuality & Gender Studies: Primary Source Materials at ONE Archives
Spring 2011- 4 Units
Thursday 2:00 to 4:50 Thursdays ONE Archives 909 West Adams
Joseph R. Hawkins Ph.D.
Office Hrs: by appointment
Office Location: ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives 909 W. Adams or at 229A GFS
Phone: At Anthropology Offices (213) 740-1900 (messages only) or (213) 741 0094 at ONE
E-mail:
Course Description: This is NOT a lecture course. This course’s goal is to familiarize undergraduate students with research methodologies and design in an archival context. Utilizing the world’s largest LGBT archive, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, on USC’s campus, the course will teach students how to do historical and social science research with primary resource materials that focus on queer culture, gender, women’s history, homosexuality, and social (in)equalities.
Taught in conjunction with the Institute for Multimedia Literacy (IML) a part of USC’s cinema school, students will be trained to use archival resources to make documentary films, social media sites, and web and physical exhibitions from the materials at the archives. Usually this affiliation with IML requires signing up for an additional two units. However, this course will provide a TA to students without their having to sign up for those extra units. Students will be taught to use Final Cut Pro, web design, and other software and media applications to assist in the creation of visual products.
As many are already aware--especially with the passage of California’s Prop. 8 and the recent “Milk” film--the need and interest in stories about LGBT people has never been more timely. This course endeavors to provide training and research methodologies essential to inform the public about issues of gender and social inequality. By excavating the richly layered sediment of history through ONE’s archival resources, these and many other topics can be brought to the fore so that others can see that hidden history.
Goals: The primary goal of the course is to teach undergraduates interested in gender issues how to expose an often history and to see the importance of primary resource materials in relation to new theoretical constructs that help dig out the archaeology of the past. In addition, this course’s focus is not limited to paper but covers a broad range of media and visual materials such as film and photography as well as sound sources and ephemera and realia. The vast resources of ONE Archives will allow students to peer into the past through the media of oral histories, corporate records, famous author’s manuscripts and the personal effects of everyday folks.
The final outcome for the course will be a presentation that can be included in the ONE Archives website and shared with fellow students in presentation. Or, it could be an exhibition about a topic of interest to LGBT people.
Books:
There are no required books for this course. A Course Reader will be handed out along with a list of suggested readings to refer to for guidance. Each student will be given a list of materials related to their topic. Instead of textbooks, you can turn to the trained archivists at ONE for help with your projects.
Here are some of the possible elected readings*:
Berube, Allan, Coming Out Under Fire – The History of Gay and Lesbians in World War II (1990).
Chauncey, George, Gay New York: Gender , Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, New York: Basic Books, 1994.
D’Emilio, John, Sexual Politics and Sexual Communities: The Making of Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970.
Faderman, Lillian, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth Century America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Faderman and Timmons Gay LA: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics and Lipstick Lesbians 2007.
Sears, James T., Behind the Mask of the Mattachine: The Hal Call Chronicles and the Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation (2006).
Williams, Walter, The Spirit & the Flesh, Beaon Press (1986).
*note some of these readings are available at ONE or other USC libraries.
Meeting Schedule
Week 1First Hour: Introductions
Second Hour:a tour of the Archives.
Third Hour: A mini-review of L.A Gay History
Week 2First, through 3rd Hour:Basic Research Methodologies
Research designs.
Week 3Doing Research in an Archival Atmosphere; Strategies and Approaches- Archival guest lecturer Loni Shibuyama, Mike Oliveira, and Kyle Morgan.
Week 4Discussion of the Media and Format of Final Projects
At the end of the semester, the goal is to produce a visual project in either film, as a mini documentary, an exhibit, or a written research paper that may be publishable. This day’s discussion will be about the various media available and how to decide which to use.
Week 5First Hour:Picking a Research Topic
How are records pulled? How do you find what you need? How do you know what you need? How do you structure your research?
Till the End of Class: Students will begin research on a variety of topics and cruise the archive for possible topics.
Week 6Films at the Archive
We’ll view archival footage recently restored and discuss possible usages for projects, fundraising, and education.
Hours 2-3: Work on Projects
Week 7Visual Imagery at the Archive
Photography, Art, and Ephemera
Hours 2-3 Work on Projects
Week 8Sound at the Archive. We’ll listen to oral histories and examine what can be done with the resources at ONE.
Hours 2-3: Work on Projects
Week 9 Periodicals and Serials in the Archives. ONE possesses a vast array of periodicals and newsletters. We’ll look at how these can be utilized for unearthing historical moments.
Hours 2-3: Work on Projects
Week 10Manuscripts and Correspondence at the Archive
We’ll look at letters from famous writers like Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams and Alfred Kinsey to see what can be discovered in original docs that is not readily available in transcripts and reproductions.
Hours 2-3: Work on Projects
Week 11Oral History and Archival Preservation. What are the components of oral histories? We will do an oral history and then process it. Then work for the remaining two hours to see if and how oral histories might fit in specific projects.
Hours 2-3: Work on Projects
Week 12Work on final Projects
Week 13Work on Final Projects
Week 14Presentation of Final Projects
Week 15Presentation of Final Projects
Final Projects Due May 9th before 4.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING
Students will be required to keep a journal throughout the semester in which to talk about their readings, projects, research, and ideas. These will be handed in every two weeks for review. Each student will regularly meet with Dr. Hawkins to discuss their progress and concerns.
All work throughout the semester will be focused on the final project.
Percentage Breakdown
60%Six Essays (6 X 10% each from journal)
10%Attendance and Class Participation[1]
30%Final Project
100% Possible
Grade Scale
93-96%=A
90-93%=A-
87-89%=B+
83-86%=B
80-82%=B-
77-79%=C+
73-76%=C
70-72%=C-
67-69%=D+
63-66%=D
60-62%=D-
0-59=F
Possible Books on Archival Methodologies
Danto, Elizabeth Ann, Historical Research ( A Pocket Guide). Oxford University Press: Oxford, England, 2008.
Hill, Michael Ray, Archival Strategies and Techniques, Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks California, 1993.
Lovaas, Karen and John P. Elia and Gust A. Yep eds. LGBT Studies and Queer Theory: New Conflicts, Collaborations and Contested Terrain, Harrington Park Press: Binghamton, NY, 2006.
Reader
Arguelles, Lourdes and B. Ruby Rich, Homosexuality and Homophobia, and Revolution: Notes Toward an Understanding of the Cuban Lesbian and Gay Male Experience, in Duberman, Martin et al., eds., Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Penguin Books: New York, 1989.
Berube, Allen, Marching to a Different Drummer: Lesbian and Gay GI’s in World War II, in Duberman, Martin et al., eds., Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Penguin Books: New York, 1989.
Chauncey, George Jr., Christian Brotherhood or Sexual Perversion? Homosexual Identities and the Construction of Sexual Boundaries in the World War I Era, in Duberman, Martin et al., eds., Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Penguin Books: New York, 1989.
D’Emilio, John, Gay Politics and Community in San Francisco Since World War II,in Duberman, Martin et al., eds., Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Penguin Books: New York, 1989.
Duberman, Martin Bauml, “Writhing Bedfellows” in Antebellum South Carolina: Historical Interpretation and the Politics of Evidence,in Duberman, Martin et al., eds., Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Penguin Books: New York, 1989.
Garber, Eric, A Specatcle of Color: The Lesbian And Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem, in Duberman, Martin et al., eds., Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Penguin Books: New York, 1989.
Lewin, Ellen, Writing Lesbian Ethnography, in Behar Ruth and Deborah A. Gordon eds. Women Writing Culture, University of Southern California Press: Los Angeles, 1995.
Newton, Esther, The Mythic Mannish Lesbian: Radclyffe Hall and the New Woman, in Duberman, Martin et al., eds., Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Penguin Books: New York, 1989.
Padgug, Robert, Sexual Matters: Rethinking Sexuality in History, in Duberman, Martin et al., eds., Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Penguin Books: New York, 1989.
Schalow, Paul Gordon, Male Love in Early Modern Japan: A Literary Depiction of the “Youth,” in Duberman, Martin et al., eds., Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Penguin Books: New York, 1989.
Weeks, Jeffrey, Inverts, Perverts, and Mary-Annes: Male Prostitution and the Regulation of Homosexuality in England in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,in Duberman, Martin et al., eds., Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Penguin Books: New York, 1989.
[1] 1 point will be removed for each absence. A total of more than four absences can lead to failure of the class.