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Reporter Lilly Knoepp talks about the expansion of a Western North Carolina LGBTQ+ oral history archive to Western Carolina University with Assistant Professor of English Travis Rountree and Head of Research and Instruction Services at Hunter Library Sarah Steiner.
A project to document the lives of LGBTQ+ people in Western North Carolina is expanding.
“I think it s really important to show, to demonstrate that there is indeed a history here and has been, for a long time,” said Rountree, a WCU assistant professor of English.
For Rountree, this project is about making the queer community in rural Western North Carolina more visible.
WCU teams with Blue Ridge Pride Center
A collaboration between Western Carolina University, the University of North Carolina Asheville and the Blue Ridge Pride Center will gather oral histories, archival materials and photos for an ongoing LGBTQ+ community research project.
The Blue Ridge Pride Center is a nonprofit founded in 2008 and estimates the region is home to some 35,000 people who identify as LGBTQ+.
Amanda Wray, project founder for the Pride Center, is an associate professor at UNCA, teaching women’s studies, gender and sexuality studies, and writing and rhetoric courses. Her academic work and her civic efforts concentrate on equity and anti-racist rhetoric, oral history research and community engagement within higher education.