Documenting Lesbian Lives

“I will focus on the use of oral history as a key method in the recovery of women’s lives, particularly those with marginalized sexual identities, and the archival labor and resources required to implement this important documentation tool. I will highlight the Documenting Lesbian Lives collection at Smith College, reflecting on the challenges of archiving queer oral history as well as the activist and community-building potential inherent in a cross-generational project that documents lesbian elders.”

Kelly Anderson

I have been an oral historian in the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College for 13 years. I am a faculty member in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender and teach courses in women’s history, queer studies, and oral history. I am also the Director of our Archives Concentration.

Kelly is part of the ‘Collecting and promoting LGBT history’ roundtable on day 3 of the conference