Public History and Queer History (original) (raw)

Collective Memory, " comparatively examines the uses of history by activists within the Civil Rights, Black Power, Women's, Gay Liberation, and American Indian Movements. As a public history practitioner, she has worked on a variety of museum, archival, and community-based projects. Abstract: During the past half-century, queer public history has transformed from a grassroots cultural form of movement activism to an widely accepted cultural and intellectual practice that blends queer collective memory with the professional practices of the larger field of public history. Beginning with cultural activism in the 1970s Gay Liberation Movement, activists developed methods for queer public history. By the 1990s, these practices became institutionalized in LGBT organizations, and by the 2000s, mainstream historical institutions began to engage LGBT history. Public historians create projects that interpret the past outside of textbooks and scholarly debates. Museum exhibits, walking tours, preserved historic buildings, podcasts, websites, archival collections, and other curatorial efforts nurture collective memory and provide various publics with an opportunity to engage with the past. Queer public history has experienced a significant growth in the past few decades, but it first emerged as a part of the cultural front of the Gay Liberation Movement. During the past half-century, queer public history has transformed from a grassroots cultural form of movement activism to an widely accepted cultural and intellectual practice that blends queer collective memory with the professional practices of the larger field of public history. The rise of queer public history is deeply interwoven with the emergence of LGBTQ historical scholarship. Although most other twentieth-century social movements used historical narratives and public history projects to build identity and justify political