CLAGS NEWS
This newsletter, dated Summer 1996, was sent to the members of CLAGS to keep them abreast of information regarding the center, including changes to the board, current news, and upcoming events. This particular issue of the newsletter is significant for two reasons. First, it contains the farewell address of CLAGS’ founder and original executive director Martin Duberman, the driving force of CLAGS from the center’s inception. A second notable article, “Uproar at Americas Society Conference,” highlights the homophobia that CLAGS was facing at the time. While CLAGS had initially helped in the planning of the Margin/Center Conference that was held at Americas Society on March 21st and 22nd 1996, the Americas Society decided to censor CLAGS’ involvement and remove the center as a co-sponsor. This issue of censorship ultimately became a focal discussion at the conference itself, but this did little to convince the Americas Society to apologize for their homophobic sleight.
Although formally instituted at the CUNY Graduate Center in 1991, CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies was first conceived 5 years earlier by Martin, Duberman, one of the first historians to embrace the, then infantile, field of Queer Studies. Duberman sensed the need for a formal center devoted to queer research. As the first university-based center for LGBTQ research, CLAGS continues to demonstrate its dedication to advancing Queer Studies, by hosting public events showcasing queer research and sponsoring fellowships to support queer scholars. Among its many notable contributions, CLAGS annually puts on at least one major conference and holds the Kessler Award Lecture every fall to celebrate a queer scholar who has made a notable contribution to the field of queer studies.
Although formally instituted at the CUNY Graduate Center in 1991, CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies was first conceived 5 years earlier by Martin, Duberman, one of the first historians to embrace the, then infantile, field of Queer Studies. Duberman sensed the need for a formal center devoted to queer research. As the first university-based center for LGBTQ research, CLAGS continues to demonstrate its dedication to advancing Queer Studies, by hosting public events showcasing queer research and sponsoring fellowships to support queer scholars. Among its many notable contributions, CLAGS annually puts on at least one major conference and holds the Kessler Award Lecture every fall to celebrate a queer scholar who has made a notable contribution to the field of queer studies.
