Trans Activism Oral History Project
A Collaboration between the University of Toronto, University of Victoria, the ArQuives, and the artist Chase Joynt
Members of the Trans Activism Oral History Project: Top Left - Dr. Elspeth H. Brown; Top Right - Elizabeth Holliday; Bottom Left - Dr. Aaron Devor; Bottom Right - Dr. Evan Taylor. Not pictured: Dr. Chase Joynt
The Project
The Trans Activism Oral History Project concerns the activist histories of trans elders in the US and Canada over the past 50 years.
In a joint partnership with the University of Victoria’s Transgender Archives and The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBQT2+ Archives ], we collected 22 oral history interviews with trans elders about their history of activism on behalf of trans people and communities in order to establish trans-specific and trans-positive primary source historical narratives that can be preserved for future generations. The interviews were conducted between December 2019 and May 2020 by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Evan Taylor. We are currently collaborating with trans filmmaker Dr. Chase Joynt to animate these oral histories in two ways: through the creation of a short narrative film and through making short, 1 minute digital stories for distribution on social media. Elizabeth Holliday, an MA student in the University of Toronto’s iSchool, is a project associate focusing on media production.