Using rare materials from the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries, students in a fall seminar course at USC will explore how science fiction fandom sparked the movement for LGBTQ rights. Andrew Good recently wrote about the course for USC News:
Gender Studies 410 will ask students to conduct original research using materials from ONE Archives at USC Libraries, the largest LGBT archive in the world. Joseph Hawkins, who is teaching the class and directs the archive, said the course will let students work with rare primary documents while challenging them to find new ways of thinking about gender and sexuality.
“I want my students to develop an appreciation for research,” Hawkins said. “I get so depressed when students pull everything off Wikipedia. I want them to look at original documents and get as jazzed about them as I do.”
Read Good's full story to learn more about the course, and don't miss this short film—produced with support from Cal Humanities as part of the Monomania L.A. series—about the hidden harmonies between early LGBTQ activism and sci-fi fandom: