Claiming History, Claiming Rights: Queer Discourses of History and Politics By Evangelia Mazaris B.A., Vassar College, 1998 A.M., Brown University, 2005 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of American Civilization at Brown University Providence, Rhode Island May 2010 © Copyright 2010 by Evangelia Mazaris This dissertation by Evangelia Mazaris is accepted in its present form by the Department of American Civilization as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date: ________________ ______________________________ Ralph E. Rodriguez, Advisor Recommended to the Graduate Council Date: ________________ ______________________________ Karen Krahulik, Reader Date: ________________ ______________________________ Steven Lubar, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date: ________________ ______________________________ Sheila Bonde, Dean of the Graduate School iii CURRICULUM VITAE Evangelia Mazaris was born in Wilmington, Delaware on September 21, 1976. She received her B.A. in English from Vassar College in 1998. Mazaris completed her A.M. in Museum Studies/American Civilization at Brown University in 2005. Mazaris was a Jacob Javits Fellow through the United States Department of Education (2004 – 2009). Mazaris is the author of “Public Transgressions: the Reverend Phebe Hanaford and the „Minister‟s Wife‟,” published in the anthology Tribades, Tommies and Transgressives: Lesbian Histories, Volume I (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008). She also published the article “Evidence of Things Not Seen: Greater Light as Faith Manifested,” in Historic Nantucket (Winter 2001). She has presented her work at numerous professional conferences, including the American Studies Association (2008), the New England American Studies Association (2007), the National Council on Public History (2009), and the University College Dublin‟s Historicizing the Lesbian Conference (2006). Mazaris has taught courses in American Studies and Queer Public Histories for the Department of American Civilization at Brown University, and in English for Delaware Technical and Community College. She has served as Graduate Proctor for Brown‟s Sarah Doyle Women‟s Center (2009 – 2010), and as Coordinator of Brown‟s LGBTQ Resource Center (2004). Mazaris sat on the Diversity Advisory Board at Brown University (2005 – 2007), and represented the Department of American Civilization to the Graduate Student Council (2004 – 2005). In addition to other public service, she has been honored to sit on the Advisory Council for Rhode Island‟s Equity Action Fund since 2007. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have accrued many debts in the making of this dissertation. First, I must thank the members of my dissertation committee, Ralph Rodriguez, Karen Krahulik, and Steve Lubar. Their thoughtful critiques, patient guidance, and well-timed encouragement gave me the intellectual support necessary to complete a project of this scope. Steve Lubar graciously found me desk space at the John Nicholas Brown Center, and regularly shared with me his thoughts on public history, helping to frame this dissertation in a larger context. He also found crucial funding for me to attend the first GLBT Archives, Libraries, Museums, and Special Collections Conference (GLBT ALMS) in 2006, which greatly influenced the trajectory of this work. Karen Krahulik generously found time in her busy schedule at the Dean of the College‟s office to carefully read my drafts and make sure I was in conversation with the world of queer theory and LGBT history. Her challenging questions pushed me to engage more meaningfully with the issues at the heart of my dissertation. Ralph Rodriguez, my dissertation director, deserves special thanks for his commitment to mentorship, as well as his unwavering belief in the value of this project. Though he maintains an impressive schedule of teaching, publishing, and community service, Ralph has always made time to meet for coffee or lunch to talk through my chapters, as well as providing extensive written feedback. He has been consistently kind, encouraging, and respectful of my work. I am lucky to count him as a friend and a mentor. I owe a huge intellectual debt to Brown‟s Department of American Civilization, where I have been privileged to do my graduate work. Through classes, lectures, colloquia, and casual conversations, I have learned more from the talented faculty, staff, v and graduate students in that department than could possibly be expressed in this dissertation. I have presented various iterations of this project to my colleagues in the department, and their thoughtful feedback has strengthened it significantly. I have particularly benefited from the advice, comments, and critique of fellow graduate students Liza Burbank-Gilb, Jessica Johnson, and Sarah Wald. Their commitment to feminist scholarship, support, and friendship is a model for what the academy should look like. Receptive audiences at the American Studies Association and the New England American Studies Association also provided valuable feedback on portions of this work. I owe a particular thanks to Jean Wood, who along with her colleagues Carole Costello and Rosanne Neri provided me with a host of technical and administrative assistance in my years at Brown. Gail Cohee and the Sarah Doyle Women‟s Center provided both employment and an intellectual home for my final year of writing. In supporting my work as Graduate Proctor at the Center, Gail helped me to develop valuable professional skills, as well as a deeper understanding of how universities function. She also supported my academic work through thoughtful conversations, funding to attend the National Women‟s Studies Association conference, and a careful reading of part of my dissertation. Working for her has been an honor and a pleasure. Laura Mulley, my colleague at the Center, has been a supportive friend and co-worker, and never once complained about all of the food I snuck out of the kitchen. Sophie Beal at the Brown University Writing Center slogged through countless drafts of these chapters, making valuable suggestions and helping me to clarify my thinking about particular issues. Perhaps most importantly, she convinced me that I vi actually was writing a dissertation, and gave me the encouragement I needed to see it through the final stages. I benefited greatly from four years of financial support from the U.S. Department of Education, in the form of a Javits Fellowship. At the conclusion of this award, the Graduate School at Brown University granted me a rare seventh year of funding, through my proctorship at the Sarah Doyle Women‟s Center. I would not have finished my dissertation without this support, and I am incredibly grateful for it. My work on this project necessitated a lot of travel, and many nights on friends‟ couches. I owe a large debt of gratitude to Sofia Mazaris and Sasha Welsh, who each hosted me many times in Brooklyn. Sasha in particular had the misfortune of living two blocks away from the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and let me camp out in her living room for weeks at a time. In San Francisco, Jeff Gagnon went completely above and beyond the call of friendship and gave me a beautiful home in the Castro for a summer in exchange for some sporadic dog walking. Words cannot express my gratitude for such generosity, and I will always have fond memories of my life on Noe Street. During that summer, my neighbor Louis Bryan kept me nourished physically and intellectually by taking me on tours of the farmers‟ market, and then telling me his own queer history over nectarines in the kitchen. I owe perhaps the greatest intellectual debt to the staff, founders, and volunteers at the archives I studied. At each archive I visited, I was met with enthusiasm, interest, and a desire to share knowledge and resources. Steven Fullwood at the Black Gay and Lesbian Archives helped me to understand both the scope of the collection and the value of what it contains. He also corresponded extensively with me via email, and graciously vii gave my students a tour of the Archives. Terence Kissack, Gerard Koscovich, and Jacob Richards at the GLBT Historical Society accepted me as a daily presence during the summer of 2006, and took the time to point me toward items of particular interest. My work at the GLBT Historical Society was made far more pleasurable by the companionship of various other researchers. I spent one particularly happy week working side by side with Daniel Rivers and Regina Kunzel, both of whom offered welcome companionship and intellectual support. At the Lesbian Herstory Archives, I was welcomed by Deb Edel, Maxine Wolfe, Desiree Yael Vester, Shawnta Smith, Devin Lindow, Joan Nestle, and many other coordinators and volunteers. Joan graciously met with me several times on trips to New York, allowing me to interview her, and giving my students a tour of the Lesbian Herstory Archives that they talked about for months afterward. Desiree made sure that I felt at home in the Archives, particularly on my last research trip when I was seven months pregnant and could frequently be found falling asleep in the special collections room. I want also to express my thanks and gratitude to all of the people who entrusted their words, objects, art, and thoughts to these archives. It has been such an intimate privilege to glimpse moments of people‟s lives and experiences, and I am humbled and grateful to have had the opportunity. My thanks extend beyond the worlds of archives and academia to my own family, friends, and community. My mother, Nancy Mazaris, has been a lifelong source of support, particularly with regard to my educational opportunities. She taught me early on that education is a priority, and made significant sacrifices to ensure that I had access to educational environments that supported my intellectual growth and development. More viii recently, she spent a year in Providence helping to care for my child so that I had time for my research and writing.