Ambivalent Affinities: A Political History of Blackness and Homosexuality after World War II

THIS IS A HYBRID EVENT. AUDIENCE MAY ATTEND IN PERSON IN 2239 LANE HALL OR VIA ZOOM

Panelists:
Jennifer Dominique Jones, Assistant Professor of History & Women's and Gender Studies 
Ava Purkiss, Assistant Professor of American Culture & Women's and Gender Studies
Sara McClelland, Associate Professor of Psychology & Women's and Gender Studies

Description:
In this interdisciplinary historical study, Jennifer Dominique Jones reveals the underexamined origins of comparisons between Black and LGBT political constituencies in the modern civil rights movement and white supremacist backlash. Foregrounding an intersectional framing of postwar political histories, Jones demonstrates how the shared non-normative status of Blackness and homosexuality facilitated comparisons between subjects and political visions associated with both. Drawing upon organizational records, manuscript collections, newspaper accounts, and visual and textual ephemera, this study traces a long, conflicting relationship between Black and LGBT political identities that continues to the present day.
This event is part of IRWG’s Gender: New Works, New Questions series, which spotlights new books by our faculty. This event will be presented in-person and include a raffle for in-person attendees to win a free copy of the book!