Pride Month at the Library: highlighting LGBTQIA+ resources
Pride Month is an opportunity for the Library to highlight LGBTQIA+ resources on our shelves with shelf markers; electronic resources and theses in our book display; and online via The Library’s Academic Guide: LGBTQIA+ Pride Month.
In addition, this June, the Library, in partnership with the Equality, Diversity and Inclusiveness team, is celebrating the following eight LGBTQIA+ academics and /or authors with a Library display.
James Baldwin (1924 –1987) was an American writer. He worked across several forms, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. He included gay and bisexual characters in his work for many years before the LGBTQ+ movement took form. Time magazine included his novel Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005. Baldwin was also a well-known public speaker, especially during the civil rights movement in the United States.
Judith Butler (1956) is an American gender studies writer and philosopher. Butler’s Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990) is considered ground-breaking for contemporary feminism, and queer theory. Gender Trouble has been translated into twenty-seven languages. Butler’s selected honours and awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship (1999); Butler was elected as Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2019).
Audre Lorde (1933 –1992) was an American writer, professor, and spoken word artist. She was a self-described “black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet”. Lorde addressed injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia in her writing. Her poetry is acclaimed for its emotional expression, including anger and outrage at civil and social injustices that Lorde observed throughout her life.
Deirdre McCloskey (1942) is an acclaimed economist and economic historian. McCloskey is a distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois, Chicago. McCloskey’s New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Crossing: A Memoir (1999, University of Chicago Press) is a memoir recounting her transition from male to female.
Anna Pauline “Pauli” Murray (1910 –1985) was an American author, legal scholar, theorist, civil rights activist, and an Episcopal priest. As a lawyer, Murray defended civil rights and women’s rights. Murray was at the forefront of the civil rights movement, together with Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Murray’s work helped expand legal protection for gender equality and influenced the civil rights movement in the United States.
Susan Stryker (1961) is an American author, professor, historian, and filmmaker. Stryker’s work focuses on human sexuality and gender. Stryker is the founder of the Transgender Studies Initiative; professor of Gender and Women’s Studies; and former director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, at the University of Arizona. Stryker also holds an appointment as Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership at Mills College. Styker is the author of several books about LGBT history and culture, and she is a leading scholar of transgender history. She came out as transgender and began to transition shortly after earning her doctorate.
Karl Ulrichs (1825 –1895) was a German writer who has been recognised as the first person to publicly “come out” in 1862. Through his work he sought to end the notion that queerness and paedophilia were linked. Ultrichs invented the term ‘’urning’’ to explain his same-sex attraction. At one point, Ultrichs rejected the term ‘’’homosexual’’ as he felt it limited queer identity to sexual acts and queer identity went beyond this. In his work, Ulrichs expressed his belief that people were born with a queer identity.
Oscar Wilde (1854 –1900) was a poet, novelist, and dramatist. Wilde was born in Ireland, and by the early 1890s he was one of the most popular playwrights in London. His most well-known works include The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde’s life has been the subject of many books and films which have contributed to the popularity of his works and his position as a popular culture icon.