Lesbian Studies Institute Lesbian Lives Course

Resistance, Subjectivity and Lesbian Lives

Dykes, Lesbians, Queer Women: The Lesbian Studies Institute, a project of the Lesbian Herstory Archives since 2010, offers courses about Lesbian lives—Resistance, Subjectivity and Lesbian Lives.

In this course that is open to all we will:

  • Consider Lesbian identities and herstory as constructed at the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, and class.
  • In resistance to the current political culture, we will study Lesbian and Feminist theorizing, strategies of survival, and self-representation in the context of our present moment.
  • We will examine the urgent relevance of Classic Lesbian Theorizing 1970–1990, as we read Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich with Sara Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life, 2017; Gloria Anzaldúa with immigration and DACA struggles; and “The Combahee River Collective Statement,” 1977, with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s How We Get Free, 2018.
  • As we read Lorde and Rich, participants will be able to draw on the collections of their papers at the Archives, hearing them read and discuss their work in the Archives’ incomparable spoken word collection.
  • Building on these readings, we will consider contemporary movements for social justice in the context of the Lesbian Liberation Movements and the work of Radicalesbians and Salsa Soul Sisters.
  • Finally, we will consider the Archives and its herstory and survival value for our communities.

Be part of this exploration of our complex and multifaceted herstory. Discover how the unequaled resources safeguarded by the Archives address today’s concerns and speak to the world we hope to create.

Two dykes at a march stand side by side with arms around each other, facing away from the camera.

Lesbian Lives is taught by Flavia Rando, PhD, an Archives coordinator and longtime Lesbian activist. A member of Gay Liberation Front and Radicalesbians, she continues her work as an activist academic. She is an art historian who teaches Women’s, Gender, and Lesbian Studies. She has written about the 1970s in Portrait of a Decade and “Between Bohemia and Revolution,” in Smash the Church, Smash the State: The Early Years of Gay Liberation. Her essay “To Transform Consciousness” appears in Art After Stonewall, 2019.

For more information or to register contact Flavia at: Prof.frando@gmail.com