Presentation
"Dear Diary, I Think I'm Gay...LGBTQ Youth and Information Access Across the Decades"
Georgia Libraries Annual Conference (GaCOMO)
(2015)
Abstract
This poster presented the library research instruction activities for a Georgia State University SOCI 3356 Queer Identities “Decades Paper” class assignment. For this assignment, students assume the imaginary identity of a teen/young adult “coming out” into a lesbian/gay/bisexual/trans/queer (LGBT/Q) sexual/gender identity during an assigned decade between the 1950s and the present. As this identity, they seek information sources from their decade appropriate/accessible to a teen/young adult and (1) write diary entries about how they, in this imaginary identity, responded to the information they found, and (2) reflect on their experience and what they learned from the exercise – relating the diary entries and reflection to course concepts of heteronormativity, hegemony, intersectionality, and critical information literacy.
This poster presents the following one-shot research-instruction session activities:
- A “mini lecture” by the librarian on how the course concepts of heteronormativity, hegemony, intersectionality, and critical information literacy fused together to inform how the students should approach the research for/writing of the Decades Paper assignment.
- An in-class, group-and-share exercise having the students use the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature (RGPL) in an innovative way: to examine and discuss how using this tool of the historical period would have reinforced/reproduced the dominant heteronormative culture and impacted the students’ LGBTQ identity development as a teen/young adult in their assigned decade.
- The librarian’s walk through the course LibGuide, which not only provides the tools/resources to help students find sources for their paper but also includes questions labeled as “Some things to think about…” throughout the guide that prompt the students to continuously be cognizant of how the intertwined course concepts of heteronormativity, hegemony, intersectionality, and critical information literacy might materialize within their research process.
Keywords
- LGBTQ,
- information access,
- primary sources,
- heteronormativity
Disciplines
Publication Date
Fall October 8, 2015
Location
Athens, GA
Citation Information
Swygart-Hobaugh, M. (2015, October 8). Dear diary, I think I'm gay: LGBTQ youth and information access across the decades. Poster presented at the Georgia COMO Annual Conference, Athens, GA.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC International License.