The project is coordinated by the Faculty Scholar for the LGBTQ+ Collection, Wendy Chapkis, a Professor of Sociology and Women & Gender Studies at the University of Southern Maine. Through oral histories, the voices and stories of members of the Southern Maine LGBTQ community are preserved and made available to the public in an effort to enrich understanding of our community and to serve as an important resource for scholars working on LGBTQ history. The oral history project is intended to add an additional dimension to that collection. The Sampson Center collection includes important papers, photographs, and other artifacts representing four decades of LGBT activism, culture, and commerce in the Southern Maine region. The objective of this project is to collect oral history accounts of LGBT life, activism, commerce, and culture in Southern Maine and to make these accounts available through the University of Southern Maine’s Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity LGBTQ+ Collection Querying the Past: Maine LGBTQ Oral History Project – background information:
