Lesbian-Gay-Queer Research Initiative (LGQRI)

Lesbian-Gay-Queer Research Initiative (LGQRI) fosters intellectual conversation and interdisciplinary connection among faculty, graduate students, and staff engaged in research and scholarship on the social, cultural, and material production of sexuality. Since its founding in 2001 LGQRI has sought to connect abundant sexuality-studies resources on the Michigan campus and to establish a locus around which contacts and dialogue about LGBTQ research and scholarship can coalesce. Recognizing that resources in the field of LGBTQ studies often develop in separate disciplinary domains, LGQRI aims to foster interdisciplinary scholarship and conversation and to facilitate the consolidation and dissemination of information and the development of new collaborative ventures.

LGQRI sponsors a vibrant ongoing speaker and artist series with regular public events throughout the academic year.

Past projects and goals of the program have included creating a brochure for departmental and program recruitment of graduate students, distributed by Rackham as part of their recruitment/admissions process; developing a list of faculty affiliates and courses that is distributed to graduate students at the University; working with the Alumni Development Office and the Gay and Lesbian Alumni Newsletter to foster giving for graduate student fellowships and support for faculty research; and supporting proposals by graduate students for initiatives designed to enhance research opportunities and collaboration across departmental and disciplinary boundaries. LGQRI has organized or co-organized conferences and symposia resulting in the publication of Gay Shame (ed. David M. Halperin and Valerie Traub, University of Chicago Press, 2010), Against Health (ed. Jonathan M. Metzl and Anna Kirkland, New York University Press, 2010), and The War on Sex (ed. Trevor Hoppe and David M. Halperin, Duke University Press, 2015), among other articles and volumes.