The Mina Rees Library wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable LGBTQ Pride month. We’d also like to share some of the queerly-aligned work taking place within the Library – and beyond!
In Spring 2022, we developed the LGBTQIA Consortium Fellowship, in partnership with CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies, and the CUNY Digital History Archive. This opportunity is made possible by generous funding from the Wagner Archives at LaGuardia Community College and the New York City Council, through the CUNY-wide LGBTQIA Consortium.
We look forward to sharing an upcoming digital exhibit about queer pedagogy, developed by 2022 Fellowship recipients Maggie Schreiner (History) and Shafika Cikmaz (Anthropology). CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies was founded in 1991 as the first research center in the United States to focus on queer lives/scholarship, and holds a central role in the development of the field of Queer Studies. Materials in the CLAGS Archive include posters, flyers, newsletters, A/V footage of conferences and events, awards ceremony speeches – previously exhibited in the Library as Thousands of Ghostly Sheaves: A History of Queer Studies at CUNY.
In Summer 2022, through its longstanding partnership with the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the Mina Rees Library offered a paid opportunity for ten Doctoral and Master’s students, to create historically-informed essays accompanying the upcoming digital exhibit, Visions of Activism. This project is generously made possible by a Public Knowledge grant, awarded to the Lesbian Herstory Archives in 2020 by the Mellon Foundation.
Lastly, if you’d like to stay in the loop about upcoming events and programming at CUNY, check out the LGBTQ Hub. The recently established LGBTQ Council advocates for issues relating to LGBT-identified students and faculty, with representatives (Wellness Center Directors, social workers, counselors) from across the University. (Please note: The CUNY LGBTQI+ Council is not to be confused with the similarly titled CUNY LGBTQI+ Advisory Council – “banking, legal, technology, government, and nonprofit advisors” lead by philanthropist and financier Mitch Draizin.)
And if you’re interested in finding related books, articles, and relevant archival materials – simply take a look at our research guide for LGBTQ Studies. Feel free to be in touch anytime with questions: we’re happy to help out!
This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
Elvis Bakaitis is currently the Head of Reference at the Mina Rees Library. They're also proud to serve on the University LGBTQ Council, and as a board member of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies. 
