Session Under development: New Directions in Queer Excavations

This call for papers seeks presentations for a panel at Lav Lgs XV that will offer new directions to a persistent problem: how to recover queer lives, cultures, identities, communities, and erotics in the face of enormous historiographical, archival, and political challenges. Broadening the definition of language to include written textual material as well as the spoken word, these discussions of historical excavation are especially appropriate for the program of the Lav Lgs conference.

Proposals are invited from scholars in all fields who are deciphering the languages of archival records, written documents, and other textual materials in order to unearth the GLBTQ past. Among other things, textual sources may include letters, diaries, memoirs, underground print cultures, organizational literature, court cases, police records, and medical case histories. We seek diverse perspectives. What challenges and successes have you experienced reading the languages, codes, and meanings of textual sources? We welcome papers on methodology, theory, archival work, and historical topics. To maximize the opportunities for learning about new directions in queer excavations, the parameters of this call are intentionally broad. Other interpretations of the theme will be considered.