Queer Archives

GESM 120 (GE-B)

Spring 2021 | T/Th 12:30-1:50pm PST

Professor Jeanne Vaccaro

E-mail jeanneva@usc.edu

Office Zoom Link https://usc.zoom.us/j/94200714767?

pwd=TzZDRjU2R1ZYclhtcmpNOTN5SnJsQT09
Meeting ID 942 0071 4767
Passcode gayarchive

Office Hours T/Th 11:00-12:00pm PST

Meetings by appointment during this window. To book, please email me in advance. You may
also make an appointment to meet with me at a different time if your course schedule conflicts
with my office hours

Course Platforms Zoom

Course Texts and Materials

PDFs of, and/or links to, all course readings are posted within the course schedule below

Course Structure and Estimated Time Commitments

We will typically meet synchronously via Zoom for one hour and twenty minutes every Tuesday
and Thursday. These meetings will include a combination of lecture, guest speakers, discussion,
small group work using Zoom’s breakout room function, and, as the semester progresses, student
presentations. On average, you are expected to spend ~2 ½ hours completing the
reading/viewing/listening assignments for each of our class sessions.

Course Description

What is an archive? And what is a queer archive? Is it a collection of materials related to LGBT
life, or is it something methodological, historical, social, and political? This class introduces
students to the overlapping nature of historical documentation and the politics of gender and
sexuality. Against the backdrop of historic and contemporary case studies, students will explore
the conceptual and political work of archival study, asking how knowledge is produced and
sustained through historical canons and archival collections. In this course students can expect to
become familiar with key concepts and texts in sexuality studies, and practice an intersectional
approach to the study of gender and sexuality, emphasizing connections across race, sex, class,
and dis/ability.
Students will learn what constitutes history and counter history, and explore how we
furnish archival ‘evidence’ in the context of critical and human inquiry. How does archival
evidence differ in developing one set of critical skills over others? Alongside digital collections
accessible via ONE, students will also work with a broad range of media including film,
community newsletters, ‘zines, performance documentation, and photography. We will consider
the role of nontraditional documentation, which make up the bulk of “counter-archives” to see
how they are also used to describe human experiences, LGBT experiences, that are often
marginalized and undocumented. Students will thus, also have an opportunity to develop archival
research skills through a mix of mini presentations throughout the course as they prepare to
complete a final research paper.

Guiding Questions
 What is the purpose of the archive? How does it reflect, sustain and manage community,
history and knowledge?
 What is the role of photographs, videos, film and visual representation in the archive?
What stories, essential truths, conflicts, and contradictions arise in the visual archive?
 How does a geographical site function as an archive? What stories can New York – past,
present and future – tell us about police violence, gentrification, and liberation?

Alignment with GE-B Humanistic Inquiry Learning Objectives

In this course students can expect to develop critical thinking skills to analyze scholarly and
theoretical texts, cultural imagery, and material objects, to better understand human expression
and creativity. Analyzing visual artworks, sound, film, and digital media will further enable
students to develop a sense of the broad range of human cultural production related to gender and
sexuality. Students will consider the role of self-identification and self-awareness in relationship
to historical events, social movements, political goals, and government policies impacting
marginalized peoples. In this way, students will approach the concept of the human as an open-
ended category, one which shifts historically over time, and is not equal across identities. Rather
than arriving at a single, unshifting definition of the human, this class will encourage students to
think broadly about the evolving nature of human identity.

Graded Writing Requirements

 Weekly Critical Reading Responses (one page each)
 Student Led Discussion and Presentation
 Two short essays, due in Weeks 5 and 10 (5-6 pages each)
 Final essay, due when final exam is scheduled (8-9 pages)

Course Policies

Attendance Although the class is online, attendance is mandatory. Your attendance may look
different than in-person attendance, but it is still mandatory.

You get two (2) “free” absences from our mandatory meetings, no questions asked. After this,
each absence will affect your final course grade by 1/3 (an A will drop down to an A-, an A- will
drop down to a B+, and so on). If you miss class more than six (6) times during the course of the
semester, you will not be able to pass the course.

When you miss class, you are responsible for locating the necessary homework, notes, and
handouts/materials.
The university grants students excused absences from class to observe religious holy days. This
policy also includes all online courses and examinations. Please contact me in advance of an
absence for a holiday to make up work missed because of religious observance.

Late Assignments All due dates/times are listed on the course schedule below. Late work will
affect your grade by 1/3 (an A will drop down to an A-, an A- will drop down to a B+, and so on)
for each class day it is past due. In other words, if an assignment is due on Tuesday and you
don’t submit it until the following Tuesday, the final grade will be lowered by 2/3. Please note
that I will not accept work handed in more than a week after the due date unless you discuss the
matter with me before the due date passes. This is also the extension policy—you can turn in
your work up to a week late, but there are penalties, so don’t choose to do so lightly.

Participation I fully expect that you will engage with all of the course materials thoughtfully.
Some of the material will be sexually explicit, given the nature of the historical and archival
collections we are considering. I expect you to exercise maturity and respect for the materials
and in conversation with your classmates. Because many of you will be attending class from
home—and home may include the presence of family members that make it difficult to engage
with these types of materials—make a game plan for ways to seek out some privacy for your
own thought and response processes. If you don’t have privacy to speak aloud, you’ll need to be
active in the Zoom chat. I encourage everyone to use headphones for class if you think the
discussion will be overheard by others in your household and affect your wellbeing (first and
foremost) and ability to contribute. Listening on headphones (preferably with video on) and
contributing in the chat is a good option for those who need it. Be in touch with me at the
beginning of the semester if you foresee an issue.

Participation is worth 20% of your course grade. I will make a practice of noting who has
contributed to each class discussion. Presence in class is not equivalent to participation in class.
Showing up means that you won’t fail for lack of attendance, but it doesn’t necessarily mean
you’ll earn the full 10% for participating. That portion of the grade is earned through your
contributions to class discussion (in chat or voice) over the course of the semester. I also
consider active listening a form of class participation.

Online Etiquette Your conduct on Zoom will make or break our collective experience. I
completely understand that this is not an ideal situation; that Zoom is a technology that, like all
technologies, has affordances and limitations; and that you may be uncomfortable learning in this
way. Listed below are my requirements for how you use this software in the context of our class.
Please let me know if you’re truly unable to meet any of these requirements and we can discuss
next steps.
 Please sign into Zoom through your USC account, rather than a personal account. For the
sake of clarity, please refrain from changing your Zoom name to something other than
what you’ve asked me to call you in class. It’s important that I recognize who you are
when you enter the room. Zoom takes attendance automatically.
 Zoom backgrounds are great and I encourage their use if your computer allows it. I also
recommend you keep your background/s consistent over the course of the semester, i.e.
don’t show up to every class session with a different background. That’ll make our
semester much less visually confusing!
  Please be “presentable” when you arrive to class, i.e. you shouldn’t show up to class
shirtless, or wrapped in a blanket, laying down in bed, et cetera. Please don’t Zoom from
a moving vehicle, while walking down the street, etc. Treat the Zoom classroom as a
place you show up to and stay for the duration.
 It is my hope that you will keep your video on for the majority of our class time together,
but I understand the discomfort that may accompany the use of this medium. So I will say
here that I expect you to be visible, but if you need accommodations for video use, you
should contact me at the beginning of the semester to discuss.
 Please mute yourself to keep background noise to a minimum, but you should expect to
unmute yourself to chime in or to respond if you’re called on.
 If video and audio muting are unavoidable, please plan on being very engaged, i.e. asking
questions and making comments, in the chat. That’s the only way to participate in class
without video and audio.
 If I or a fellow classmate call on you and you don’t feel comfortable speaking your
answer via microphone in that moment, answer via chat.
 Please do not turn on your Zoom and leave the room. This is especially inadvisable in a
small class such as ours, and if you do this you will be marked absent for that day.

E-mail Assistance I accept and answer email M-F between the hours of 8am and 5pm PST.
Once I receive your email, I will respond as soon as I can, usually within 48 hours, unless you
email me late on Friday afternoon, in which case I’ll respond on Monday or Tuesday.

Extra Credit I have listened relevant online programming in the syllabus. These are usually
events related to LGBT archival materials, often sponsored by the ONE Archives. These are not
required as they fall outside of our class time, but are highly encouraged if you are able to attend,
and will sometimes replace our regular class sessions. You can choose to write you critical
responses to these events.

Grading Breakdown

Participation 20%
Critical Reading Responses 25%
Short Essay #1 10%
Short Essay #2 10%
Group Discussion-Leading Presentation 10%
Final Essay or Media Project 25%

Grading Timeline & Scale

I will make every effort to get you written feedback and grades on assignments within two (2)
weeks of submission.

A 95-100 B+ 87-89
A- 90-94 B 83-86
B- 80-82 D+ 67-69
C+ 77-79 D 63-66
C 73-76 D- 60-62
C- 70-72 F 59 and below

Course Requirements

Participation 20%
See the above Course Policies.

Short Essay #1 20%

A short essay of 4-5 double-spaced pages will be due at the end of Week 6, on Friday,
February 26 at 11:59 PM. In this essay, you will make an original argument rooted in the
course materials engaged up to that point. Further instructions for this assignment will be
provided in a supplemental document.

Short Essay #2 20%

A short essay of 4-5 double-spaced pages will be due at the end of Week 10, on Friday, March
26at 11:59 PM. In this essay, you will make an original argument rooted in the course materials
engaged up to that point. Further instructions for this assignment will be provided in a
supplemental document.

Group Discussion-Leading Presentation 15%

Along with one or two of your classmates, you will be responsible for leading the day’s
discussion of the readings once during the term. Your presentation will be based on several
discussion-oriented questions that you and your group members have prepared prior to class, and
will incorporate one media example not assigned on the course syllabus. Your presentation
should not be a summary of the material in the readings, but should grapple with the implications
of the concepts raised in the course texts and relate them to historical or contemporary media.
You can also use this time to break down complex ideas, key terms, and quotations. Further
instructions for this assignment will be provided in class.

Final Essay or Media Project 25%

There are two options for the final course assignment, but for either, you should make an
original contribution to the theories/histories/concepts we covered in class. You should not
simply summarize the course materials. Your project should clearly articulate your perspective,
but should cite course materials as well as texts from outside our class. Your first option is to
write a final essay of 8-9 double-spaced pages with all references cited in MLA format. Your
second option is to create an audio(visual) media project accompanied by a 1000-word
artist’s statement with all references cited in MLA format. Further instructions for these
assignments will be provided in a supplemental document.

Tentative Course Schedule

Please note that our schedule may be revised depending on the needs of the class. Readings,
listenings, viewings, etc. are to be completed in advance of the day that they appear on the
syllabus, since that’s the day we’ll be discussing them as a group. When possible, please
complete the assignments in the order that they are listed.

Week 1

Tues Jan 19 Course and Syllabus Overview

Thurs Jan 21 -- Read: Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons, “Organizing Underground”
(2006, GAY LA: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick
Lesbians, pp. 105-137)

Week 2 Gay LA

Mon Jan 25 CRR1 Due 11:59 PM

Tues Jan 26 -- Read: Rebecka Taves Sheffield, “The ONE National Gay and Lesbian
Archives” (2020, Documenting Rebellions: A Study of Four Gay and Lesbian
Archives, pp. 49-76)
Presenter: Lexi Johnson, ONE Archives

Thurs Jan 28 -- Sick Day

Week 3 Policing the Archive

Mon Feb 1 CRR2 Due 11:59 PM

Tues Feb 2 -- Read: Rebecka Taves Sheffield, “The June R. Mazer Lesbian Archives” (2020,
Documenting Rebellions: A Study of Four Gay and Lesbian Archives, pp. 77-108)
-- Watch: The Mazer Memory Project
Presenter: Julia Tanenbaum, Mazer Archives

Thurs Feb 4 No class -- “Black Gay Mail” panel on archiving Black postal systems
**2pm** (register here)

Week 4 Curating the Archive

Tue Feb 9 -- Read: Andy Campbell, “How to Talk About Tom” (2020, Bound Together:
Leather, Sex, Archives, and Contemporary Art, pp. 55-79)
Presenter: Andy Campbell, Roski School of Art, USC

Thurs Feb 11 -- Read: Denise Green, “Exhibiting Gender: Exploring the Dynamic Relationships
between Fashion, Gender, and Mannequins in Museum Display” (Journal of
Costume Society of America, pp. 75-88)
Presenter: Denise Green, Cornell University’s Fashion and Textile Collection
Week 5 Politics of Display

Tues Feb 16 -- Read: Ben Singer, “From the Medical Gaze to Sublime Mutations: The Ethics
of (Re)Viewing Non-Normative Body Images”
Presenter:

Thurs Feb 18 -- Read: Richard Meyer, “Barring Desire: Robert Mapplethorpe and the
Discipline of Photography” (2002, Outlaw Representation: Censorship and
Homosexuality in Twentieth Century American Art, pp. 159-224)
Presenter:

Week 6 Queer New York

Tues Feb 23 -- Read: Christina Handhardt, “Butterflies, Whistles, and Fists: Gay Safe Streets
Patrols andthe New Gay Ghetto, 1976 – 1981” (2008, Radical History Review, pp.
60-85)
Presenter:

Thurs Feb 25 -- Read: Judith Butler, “Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and
Subversion” (1993, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex, pp. 121-
140)
-- Watch: Jennie Livingston, Paris is Burning (1990, accessible online)
Presenter:

Fri Feb 26 Short Essay #1 Due 11:59 PM

Week 7 Feelings in the Archive

Tues Mar 2 -- Read: Ann Cvetkovich, “The Everyday Life of Queer Trauma” (2003, An
Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures, pp. 15-48)
Presenter:

Thurs Mar 4 -- Read: Elizabeth Freeman, “Deep Lez: Temporal Drag and the Specters of
Feminism” (2010, Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories, pp. 59-93)
Presenter:

Week 8 Archival Media

Tues Mar 9 -- Read: Cait McKinney, “Calling to Talk and Listening Well: Information as
Care at Telephone Hotlines” (2020, Information Activism: A Queer History of
Lesbian Media Technologies, pp. 67-104)
Presenter:

Thurs Mar 11 -- Read: Lisa Darms, “Introduction” and excerpts (2013, The Riotgrrl Collection,
pp. 6-17)
 -- Watch: Sini Anderson, The Punk Singer (2013, accessible online)
Presenter:

Week 9 No Class

Thurs Mar 25 -- extra credit: La Chica Boom Vision and Voices performance

Week 10 AIDS Archives

Tues Mar 30 -- Read: Ann Cvetkovich, “AIDS Activism and Public Feelings: Documenting
ACT UP’s Lesbians” (2003, An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and
Lesbian Public Cultures, pp. 156-204)
-- Watch: Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbard, United in Anger: A History of ACT
UP (2012, accessible online)
Presenter:

Thurs Apr 1 -- Read: Ted Kerr, “What You Don’t Know About AIDS Could Fill A Museum:
Curatorial Ethics and the Ongoing Epidemic in the 21st Century” (2019, On
Curating)
Presenter:

Week 11 Transgender Archives

Tues Apr 6 -- Read: Leslie Feinberg, “Preface,” excerpts from “Chapter 1” and “Chapter 3”
(1996, Transgender Warriors, pp. ix-xiii, 3-9, 21-29)
-- Watch: Susan Stryker, Compton’s Cafeteria (2005, accessible on YouTube and
Amazon)
Presenter:

Wed Apr 7 Short Essay #2 Due 11:59 PM

Thurs Apr 8 -- Read: Jack Halberstam, “The Brandon Archive” (2005, In a Queer Time and
Place: Transgender Bodies and Subcultural Lives, pp. 22-46)
Presenter:

Week 12 Documenting Oral History in the Archive

Tues Apr 13 -- Read: Elspeth H. Brown, “Trans/Feminist Oral History: Current Projects”
-- Listen: Interview with Jay Toole for the NYC Trans Oral History Project
Presenter:

Thurs Apr 15 -- Watch: Analise Ophelian, Major! (2015, accessible online)

-- Listen: Interview with Ceyenne Doroshow for the NYC Trans Oral History
Project
Presenter:
Week 13 Final Presentations

Tues Apr 20 -- In class final presentations

Thurs Apr 22 -- In class final presentations continued

Finals Week (Final Essay or Media Project due at end of our course’s scheduled final exam
window; syllabus will be updated to reflect that day/time when university releases info. I repeat:
there is no final exam for this course.)

Support Systems (all of which have been moved to online format)

Student Counseling Services (SCS) - (213) 740-7711 – 24/7 on call : Free and confidential
mental health treatment for students, including short-term psychotherapy, group counseling,
stress fitness workshops, and crisis intervention. https://engemannshc.usc.edu/counseling/

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - 1-800-273-8255: Provides free and confidential

emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week. http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org

Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Services (RSVP) - (213) 740-4900 - 24/7 on
call: Free and confidential therapy services, workshops, and training for situations related to
gender-based harm. https://engemannshc.usc.edu/rsvp/

Sexual Assault Resource Center: For more information about how to get help or help a
survivor, rights, reporting options, and additional resources, visit the website: http://sarc.usc.edu/

Office of Equity and Diversity (OED)/Title IX Compliance – (213) 740-5086: Works with
faculty, staff, visitors, applicants, and students around issues of protected class.
https://equity.usc.edu/

Bias Assessment Response and Support: Incidents of bias, hate crimes and microaggressions
need to be reported allowing for appropriate investigation and response.
https://studentaffairs.usc.edu/bias-assessment-response-support/

The Office of Disability Services and Programs (DSP)*: Provides certification for students
with disabilities and helps arrange relevant accommodations. http://dsp.usc.edu

Student Support and Advocacy – (213) 821-4710: Assists students and families in resolving
complex issues adversely affecting their success as a student EX: personal, financial, and
academic. https://studentaffairs.usc.edu/ssa/

Diversity at USC: Information on events, programs and training, the Diversity Task Force
(including representatives for each school), chronology, participation, and various resources for
students. https://diversity.usc.edu/
USC Emergency Information: Provides safety and other updates, including ways in which
instruction will be continued if an officially declared emergency makes travel to campus
infeasible, http://emergency.usc.edu

Academic Conduct: Plagiarism – presenting someone else’s ideas as your own, either verbatim
or recast in your own words – is a serious academic offense with serious consequences. Please
familiarize yourself with the discussion of plagiarism in SCampus in Part B, Section 11,
“Behavior Violating University Standards” https://policy.usc.edu/scampus-part-b/.  Other forms
of academic dishonesty are equally unacceptable.  See additional information in SCampus and
university policies on scientific misconduct, http://policy.usc.edu/scientific-misconduct.

*Please let me know if you require specific academic accommodations for this class. Students
requesting such accommodations are required to register with DSP each semester. A letter of
verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP, which is located in STU
301 and is open from 8:30am-5:00pm PST, Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP
is (213) 740-0776 and their website is listed above.