2007 Campus-Community Partnerships
The 'Access Mazer' Project:
Organizing and Digitizing the Lesbian-Feminist Archive in Los Angeles
| Awardee: | Kathleen McHugh, Professor & Director Center for the Study of Women |
| Partner: | The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives |
Abstract:
The UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) will partner with the West Hollywood-based June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives—the sole archival repository on the West Coast dedicated to preserving lesbian and feminist history—to inventory, organize, preserve, and digitize several key Los Angeles-themed collections.
Recent histories have painted Los Angeles as a central hub of gay rights organizing during the last century, equal in significance to New York City. Yet, much of the published material on LA’s important homosexual figures, community groups, and organization focuses on gay men, largely neglecting LA’s lesbian population.
As part of CSW’s large-scale research project on “Women and Gender in Los Angeles,” the partnership will provide the entirely volunteer-run Mazer Lesbian Archives with reserarch and archival expertise; technical support; preservation supplies; university affiliation; and community outreach. This project will result in greater access for academics, independent scholars, and Angelenos to singular materials on lesbians and lesbian-feminist organizations to better conceptualize and write women’s and LGBTQ histories in Los Angeles. These materials will supplement an historical record primarily focused on gay men and give salience to an historical moment when lesbian rights and feminist movements were more closely integrated.
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