The University of Chicago has become a major center for research and graduate training in lesbian, gay and queer studies. The LESBIAN & GAY STUDIES PROJECT (LGSP), an integral part of the University's Center for Gender Studies, coordinates graduate and undergraduate courses, provides research grants and dissertation-year fellowships to graduate students, co-sponsors the bi-weekly Gender & Sexuality Studies Workshop, and organizes research projects and conferences. It provides an interdisciplinary locus for Chicago faculty and graduate students who study the historical, cultural, and textual construction of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer identities, cultures, and politics; analyze those formations or the dominant culture and social theory from the perspective of queer theory; or engage in other critical studies of sexuality.
In 2004-05, our programming includes a series of lectures on same-sex marriage (fall), a day-long multi-disciplinary symposium on the Caribbean "Queer Islands" (April 16, 2005), screenings and discussions with French queer filmmakers Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau (winter), and our continued co-sponsorship of a public lecture series at the Chicago Historical Society (winter-spring). The Gender & Sexuality Studies Workshop, which meets on alternate Tuesdays, and the Gender Studies Brownbag Lunches, which take place most Fridays, often feature work in queer studies and culture.
Training the next generation of lesbian, gay, and queer studies scholars is central to the mission of the University of Chicago's Lesbian and Gay Studies Project. Project faculty have advised graduate students in history, anthropology, English, East Asian studies, political science, human development, sociology, and other fields. These students are conducting original archival research, fieldwork, and critical textual analysis that will produce fundamental new knowledge and insights into contemporary debates over homosexuality and the historical development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other "queer" identities, cultures, and politics in a variety of cultural settings and historical periods. Students have studied and compared these processes around the world - in India, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, and Canada, as well as the United States. Supporting their work is crucial, since it will both advance our knowledge of sexuality and transgender issues and speed the integration of gay scholarship into the major disciplines and college teaching.
Former graduate students supported by the Project, including recipients of the James C. Hormel Dissertation Fellowship in Lesbian and Gay Studies and the Graduate Research Grants in Lesbian and Gay Studies, have done well on the job market and now hold teaching positions at colleges and universities across North America, including George Washington University, the University of Manitoba, Indiana University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Middle Tennessee State University.