Jane Grant Conference Room 330 Hendricks Hall 1408 University St. UO campus printable flyer

Whiteness and the Literary Construction of Homosexuality

CSWS director Michael Hames-García will talk about a new book project that focuses on whiteness and the literary construction of homosexuality in the period between World War II and the 1969 Stonewall rebellion. This manuscript examines works by authors ranging from Gore Vidal to James Baldwin to explore the conflation of homosexuality with whiteness that developed during this historic period.

“Rather than a collateral effect of latent white supremacy or disregard for the lives of queer people of color, I argue that this conflation—perhaps most surprising in the work of African American author James Baldwin and Chicano writer John Rechy—is the result of a deliberate, if implicit, process of making homosexuality legible, representing it as not pathological, and garnering sympathy for emerging political claims on its behalf,” he says.

Dr. Hames-García is a professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at University of Oregon. He will talk about his research in the cozy setting of the Jane Grant Conference Room on Wednesday, December 3, at noon.

Feel free to bring your own lunch.