Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Current Appointment

California State University, Fullerton, 2019-Present

  • Associate Professor of American Studies

Education

George Mason University, 2012-2019

  • PhD, History
  • MA, History and Art History, 2014
  • Graduate Certificate, Women and Gender Studies, 2014

Indiana University, 2008-2012

  • BA, History and Political Science (with distinction)
  • Minor: Near Eastern Languages and Culture

Awards and Fellowships

Presentations

  • “Vacations & Visibility: A Short History of the LGBT Traveler,” Invited Lecture, Travel + Leisure Co., June 4, 2024
  • “Stories for All,” Invited Keynote Panel, Lawrence, Kansas, April 18, 2024
  • “Mapping the Margins: Gay Travel Guides & the Promise of Digital History,” Invited lecture, Falvey Library at Villanova University April 18, 2024
  • “Beats, Bars, and the Baths: Music and Defining Gay Commercial Spaces Post Stonewall,” Society of American Music Conference, Detroit, Michigan, March 21, 2024
  • “The Birth of the American Gay Bar,” Invited lecture, University of Utah’s Asia Campus in Incheon, South Korea, October 9, 2023
  • “Out After Dark: LGBTQ+ Nightlife In America’s Current Political Climate,” Invited panel talk with 24HourNation, August 16, 2023
  • “Shirts, Spaces, and Stories: Understanding LGBTQ American History with Material Culture,” Public Library of St. Joe County, South Bend, Indiana, April 19, 2023
  • “The Place of American Drag,” CSUF American Studies Forum on Anti-LGBT Legislation, April 13, 2023
  • “Born Again Boogie: Christian Nightclub Experiments in California, 1970-1990,” recorded for C-SPAN Lectures in History series, November 10, 2022. [Subsequently made into a C-SPAN Classroom Lesson plan: https://www.c-span.org/classroom/document/?20234) ]
  • “Our Chosen Families: Saving Our Queer History with Material Culture” Invited lecture for Inspire Clean Energy LGBT History Month Celebration, October 22, 2022
  • “On the Margins of the Margins of the Circle City (Indianapolis),” Panel Chair, 2022 Queer History Conference, San Francisco, CA, June 13, 2022
  • “Unity and Disunity: Tensions & Community in History,” Invited Keynote address, Annual History Graduate Student Association Conference University of California, Irvine, April 29, 2022
  • “Meeting Grounds: The Rise of the Black Gay Bar in America,” Invited lecture, Westfield State University, April 13, 2022
  • Post-GMU History PhD Jobs Panel, Invited talk, George Mason University, April 4, 2022
  • “New Histories of LGBTQ Space and Place,” Panel Chair, 2022 OAH Conference on American History, April 1, 2022
  • “Bringing the Gay ‘Green Book’ Online,” Invited lecture, Build Out Alliance, December 1, 2021 
  • “Gay Rights and Reactions in the West,” Panel commenter, Western Historical Association Annual Meeting, October 18, 2021
  • “The Promise of the LGBT Digital Humanities,” Invited plenary address, University of Alabama Digitorium, October 9, 2021
  • “LGBT Historic Preservation” Invited lecture with the PRIDE BRG Group of the American Automobile Association, October 5, 2021
  • “Under the Rainbow: How History is Made,” GLBT Historical Society Museum, September 16, 2021
  • “Wearing the Gay Revolution,” Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, September 15, 2021
  • “Michigan & the Gay Guides,” Saugatuck-Douglas History Center, July 15, 2021
  • “Digital Humanities and the Gay Guides,” CSUF Spring Digital Humanities Keynote Speaker, May 13, 2021
  • “Queering The Map 2.0 A Roundtable About Interactivity, Temporality & Ambiguity in Queer Digital Maps,” May 5, 2021
  • “LGBTQ+ Leadership After the Pandemic,” Point Foundation Panel Discussion, April 30, 2021
  • “Because the Night: Nightlife & Rethinking Gay Liberation,” CSUF American Studies Graduate-Faculty Colloquium, March 19, 2021
  • “Gay Guides and Gay Guys: Mapping American Queer Spaces with Historical Gay Travel Guides,” Invited lecture at the University of Southern California, April 5, 2021
  • “Mapping the Gay Guides: Using Digital History to Explore LGBTQ Travel Guides,” Invited lecture at the Center for Presidential History, Southern Methodist University, November 23, 2020
  • “Teaching Engaging Online Courses,” Southern Historical Association’s Graduate Council Luncheon, November 20, 2020
  • “Gay Digital Public History,” Invited Class Talk with Dr. Kathy Peiss, University of Pennsylvania, November 18, 2020
  • “Born Again Boogie Nights: The Rise of the Christian Nightclub in Southern California,” Western Historical Association Annual Meeting, October 16, 2020
  • “Thinking Archives: Gender, Sexuality, and Archival Recognition,” Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association Meeting, Panel Chair and Commenter, August 8, 2020
  • “Wearing Gay History: LGBT History Through T-shirts,” Teachers College, Columbia University, June 25, 2020
  • “Harvey Milk Day Lecture” Invited discussion for the California Capitol LGBT Association, May 24, 2020
  • “The Queer Battle for Capitol Hill: Marines and Violence at D.C. Gay & Lesbian Nightlife,” Invited speaker, 2020 Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., April 4, 2020
  • “Doing LGBTQ History,” Invited Lecture (via Skype), Muskingum University, November 13, 2019
  • “Sex and Desire,” panel commenter, American Studies Association’s 2019 Annual Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, November 10, 2019
  • “The Queer T-shirt in Our National History,” Invited PLATO lecture, Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, November 1, 2019
  • “(In)Visible Histories: Roundtable Discussion on LGBT Rights 50 Years after Stonewall” Invited talk at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., June 26, 2019
  • “Our Queer Closets: Understanding Global LGBTQ History Though T-shirts” Invited lecture at the Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, May 30, 2019
  • “Sexual Politics in the Reagan Era,” panel chair, Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 26, 2019
  • “Where Else Can We Go?:The Black Gay Bar in the Urban Mid Atlantic,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, January 6, 2019
  • “A Mini Rage: Parsing Race & Racism in Late 20th-Century Queer Activist Apparel,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, November 10, 2018.
  • “Cops and Queers: The History of the Police and the LGBTQ+ Community in DC,” Panel Organizer, Washington, D.C., Thurgood Marshall Center, October 18, 2018
  • “Women Leadership, Lesbian Activists & the DC AIDS Crisis,” Panel Organizer, Washington, D.C., Shaw (Watha T. Daniel) Library, May 9, 2018
  • “Clubs and Equality: Fighting Discrimination at Philadelphia’s Gay Bars in the 1970s and 1980s” Invited Lecture, William Way LGBT Community Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 10, 2017
  • “Covering the Queer Capital: The Washington Blade, A Historical Discussion,” Shaw (Watha T. Daniel) Library, Washington D.C., April 26, 2017
  • “Celia the Queen: Historical Memory and the Queen of Salsa,” Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, D.C., March 30, 2017
  • “Saying Yes to LGBT Research,” Invited Lecture, HE461: LGBT Studies in Literature, Professor Marlon Moore, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, March 28, 2017
  • “Say It Like You Mean It: Graduate Education and Creative Expression in Thinking, Making, and Doing History,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, January 7, 2016
  • “Carding and the Clubs: Fighting Discrimination at Washington Gay Bars, 1973-1985,” 43rd Annual Conference on D.C. History, Washington D.C., November 5, 2016
  • “Rainbow Heritage and History: Preserving The Records of DC’s LGBT Communities,” Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington D.C., October 15, 2016
  • “Gay Activism in Washington During the 1960s and 1970s,” Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, D.C., June 25, 2016
  • “Wearing What You Preach: Making an LGBT Digital Archive,” Gay American History @ 40 – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer History: Past, Present, Future, New York, New York, May 6, 2016
  • “Defending Dullsville: Madonna, Protest, and Community Identity in the Heartland,” Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association National Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 2, 2015
  • “Ignoring Charles Stuart: Race, Reaction, and Redirection in Boston,” George Mason Department of History and Art History M.A. Colloquium, Fairfax, Virginia, April 21, 2014

Digital/Public History

Wearing Gay History, Creator, 2014-Present

Creator of online digital archive of historical LGBT t-shirts. The site includes a catalogue of nearly 4,000 t-shirts and several historical online exhibits. Site named one of the top 5 digital history projects of 2015 by Slate and awarded the 2016 National Council on Public History Student Project Award.

Mapping the Gay Guides, Co-Creator, 2020-Present

Co-creator of free, online digital mapping project that that allow users to explore and understand the history and culture of queer space in America from 1965-1980

Trump Protest Archive, Creator, 2017-Present

Creator of online material culture archive from protest events relating to the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump and the early part of his administration. The free online archive seeks photographic contributions from the public in the United States and across the globe.

African American AIDS History Project, Research Fellow, 2018

With generous funding from the Elton John AIDS Foundation, I work on the digitization and preservation of materials related to the history of black AIDS activism in the United States, including indexing of oral histories and the creation of online museum exhibitions.

Rainbow History Project, Board of Directors, 2016-Present

Comprised of archivists, community activists, and historians, the RHP collects and promotes an active knowledge of the history, arts, and culture relevant to sexually diverse communities in metropolitan Washington DC.

OutHistory, Contributing Blog Editor, 2016-Present

Contributing blog editor to award winning site and online museum that documents the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Founded by Jonathan Ned Katz.

Wearing History: An Exhibit on LGBT History through T-shirts

Designer and creator of a physical exhibit featuring T-shirts and other artifacts from the Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives located in Indianapolis. This exhibit on LGBT Indiana history was on display at the Indiana University GLBT office in 2012.

Teaching

Courses taught (2012-Present):

  • American Nightlife
  • The American Male
  • Culture and Commerce of American Music
  • The 1950s in American Culture
  • War in American Culture
  • Civil Rights and American Culture
  • Race in American Culture
  • Introduction to American Studies (Anxiety and the Making of America)
  • War and American Culture
  • Theories and Methods of American Studies
  • The Digital Past / The Progressive Era
  • United States History I + II
  • Women in American History
  • History of Western Civilization
  • World History

National Endowment for the Humanities, Project Associate

Research Articles

  • “Born-Again Boogie: Christian Nightclub Experiments in California, 1970–1990” California History 101, no. 1 (2024): 27-51
  • “The Battle for Queer Capitol Hill: Marines & Violence at D.C.’s Lesbian & Gay Nightlife,” Washington History 35, no. 1 (2023): 50-61.
  • “Unfolding Our History: Exploring Post-Stonewall LGBTQ History with T-shirts,” Queer Pasts, Alexander Street, 2023.
  • “Mapping the New Gay South: Queer Space and Southern Life 1965-1980,” Southern Quarterly, Vol. 58, no. 1 (2020): 11-25. Co-written by Dr. Amanda Regan, Southern Methodist University

Museum Exhibitions

  • Co-Curator, Mapping the Gay Guides: Understanding Southern California Gay History through Travel Guides. On display at Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center of Anaheim, March-July 2024

K-12 Education Resources

  • “Jose Julio Sarria: A Legacy of Advocacy, Politics, and Performance,” and “Hector Valle: Pioneer of NYC Ballroom and Founder of the House of Extravaganza” in Hidden Voices: Latinos in United States History, a resource lesson guide, New York City Department of Education (forthcoming)

Public Scholarship

  • “Telling Hoosier Stories: Digital Queer Public History in Indiana and the Nation.” Indiana Magazine of History 119, no. 4 (2023): 377-392.
  • “Kinds of Histories That Save Lives”: A Q&A on Queer Archives in Kentucky and Arizona.” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 121, no. 4 (2023): 445-473. With Jonathan Coleman and Jamie A. Lee.
  • “Foreword” to “Say It With Your Chest: T-Shirts of Queer Protest and Rebellion” traveling historical exhibition, London
  • “The Everyday Heroes of the Gay Rights Movement,” Washington Post, June 29, 2019
  • “The Lavender Scare and Beyond,” History News Network, June 16, 2019
  • “Queering the Classroom,” The American Historian, May 2019

Reviews

  • Joint Review of The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America,1960 and After by Lucas Hilderbrand and Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution by Amin Ghaziani, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 2025
  • The Routledge History of Queer America edited by Don Romesburg, Journal of the History of Sexuality, Fall 2021
  • David K. Johnson, Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement (Columbia University Press, 2019), Journal of Social History (Fall 2019)
  • Julio Capó, Jr., Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami before 1940 (UNC Press, 2017), Journal of American Ethnic History (Spring 2019)
  • Jonah Markowitz and Tracy Wares, dirs. Political Animals (Kanopy Streaming, 2016), Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History Newsletter (Spring 2018)

Previous Work Experience

  • Morgan, Angel & Associates, Historian/Research Associate, 2015
  • Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration, History Intern, 2014
  • Indiana Magazine of History, Editorial Assistant, 2011-2012
  • Indiana University Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Support Services, Outreach Coordinator, 2010-2012
  • Indiana University Office for Women’s Affairs, Peer Educator, 2009-2012
  • Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women, Cairo, Egypt, Intern, 2010

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