CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

This item features the events sponsored by CLAGS during the Fall 2014 semester. The diversity and range of events throughout the semester, including topics such as a panel on sports culture and queerness, discussions of safe spaces, and the launch of the LGBTQ Scholars of Color Network, demonstrates CLAGS’ commitment to all forms of queer studies and in particular new developments in the field. All of these events, with the exception of “Boys: Reception and Panel Discussion,” were held on CUNY campuses. The most significant of these was the annual Kessler Lecture, awarded each year to a queer scholar believed to have made significant contributions to the field.

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.