Queer Pasts is a collection of primary source exhibits for students and scholars of queer history and culture, curated by academic editors Anne Rubenstein and Lisa Arellano. The database uses queer in its broadest and most inclusive sense, embracing topics that are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender and work on sexual and gender formations that are queer but not necessarily LGBT.
Each exhibit includes an introductory essay and 10 to 40 primary source documents that provide firsthand accounts of queer histories, experiences, and identities, presented in original form and searchable transcription. The collection seeks to broaden the field of queer history by prioritizing under-represented histories and encouraging critical reflection on the archives used and materials presented.
Key Benefits
Primary Source Exhibits With Scholarly Framing
Every exhibit includes an introductory essay plus 10 to 40 primary source documents that help explain the historical significance of the sources and their relationship to prior scholarship.
Original Documents And Searchable Transcription
Documents appear in both their original form and searchable transcription, supporting close reading, discovery, and teaching with primary sources.
Broadens And Questions The Archive
The collection prioritizes under-represented histories and asks exhibit editors to address the strengths, limitations, and contested nature of archives and the materials they preserve.
Customer Resources
Quick product overview
View the Queer Pasts Brochure
Meet the Editors
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- Lisa Arellano is Interim Executive Director, Mills Institute. Her teaching focuses on comparative social movements, critical historiography, and violence studies.
- Anne Rubenstein is Professor of History at York University. Her teaching and research focus on gender history and media history of the Americas, particularly 20th century Mexico.
Founding Editor
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- Marc Stein is the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History at San Francisco State University. He is a historian of U.S. law, politics, and society, with research and teaching interests in constitutional law, social movements, gender, race, and sexuality.
Included Content / Coverage
Primary source exhibits, introductory essays, 10 to 40 primary source documents per exhibit, original document images, searchable transcriptions, legal records, census documents, personal letters, newspaper articles, photographs, posters, magazines, leaflets, diaries.
Key Themes Include
Queer history, queer culture, sexual and gender formations, social movements, activism, law and politics, archives and historiography, under-represented histories.
Fast Facts
Content Format
Multimedia
Also part of...
Highlighted Subjects
Queer history
Gender and sexuality studies
LGBTQ studies
Social movements
Law and politics
Race and ethnicity
Archives and historiography
Type of Content
Primary source exhibits
Introductory essays
Original documents
Searchable transcriptions
Platform
Access on the Alexander Street video platform
Also available on ProQuest platform
Territorial Rights
Worldwide
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