HIST243 - THE AMERICAN WOMEN'S MOVEMENT AND LGBT LIBERATION, 1960S-1980S

This seminar explores the history of the feminist and LGBT movements from the mid-1960s to mid-1980s in Philadelphia. Although there will be some attention to national organizations, we will focus on social and political activism as it was made in local groups and spaces. We will explore the social and cultural web that fostered activism, for example, in gay and lesbian coffee houses, campus women's centers, bookstores, and radio shows. We will also pay attention to groups and actions that may not have been self-consciously defined as "feminist" or "gay liberationist," but had important effects on social change related to gender and sexuality; these include African American, Latino/a, and working-class organizations. This is a hands-on research seminar, with students exploring local archives and special collections to document and analyze these complex movements. Each student will conduct an oral history, analyze a set of published and printed sources, and write a paper based on archival research.