{"id":26549,"date":"2025-02-15T08:06:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T08:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=26549"},"modified":"2026-03-13T16:36:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T16:36:46","slug":"in-their-own-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2025\/02\/in-their-own-words\/","title":{"rendered":"In Their Own Words\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alexandra McLaughlin \u201916<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students explore the richness of queer and trans lives through oral histories and archival research.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThe inaccuracies in people\u2019s memory is actually one of the things that makes oral history valuable, as it allows us to ask why this person or group of people remembered a series of events differently than they happened.\u201d \u2014Leah Long ’25 <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What makes a person who they are? In Prof. Myrl Beam\u2019s course, Telling Queer and Trans Stories: Oral History as Method and Practice, students dig into the complexities of queer and trans lives, challenging the flat portrayals often seen in media. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven the good representation is missing a lot of richness, specificity, and weirdness that makes us human\u2014our fears and joys and desires, our friendships, our political organizing, our intense feelings about our cats,\u201d Prof. Beam said. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The course combines oral history methodology with hands-on work in partnership with the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project. Students contribute to \u201cThe Long Fire at Lake and Minnehaha,\u201d a collaborative research project combining oral histories and archival research to explore the layered history of this South Minneapolis intersection. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Themes include policing, environmental racism, Native activism, homelessness, anti-trans violence, and the activist communities formed in response. Students contribute to a growing digital archive documenting the history and activism in these neighborhoods.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOral history gives a capacious, rich specificity to queer and trans lives,\u201d Dr. Beam said. \u201cIt also offers connection.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past students have interviewed prominent figures, including a national journalist and Minnesota state Rep. Leigh Finke, the first openly transgender member of the Minnesota legislature.  <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leah Long \u201925 (Omaha, Neb.) said the class sharpened her skills as a researcher, writer, and historian. An unexpected insight came from exploring memory and its inaccuracies.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe inaccuracies in people\u2019s memory is actually one of the things that makes oral history valuable, as it allows us to ask why this person or group of people remembered a series of events differently than they happened,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Bernadette Whitely \u201926 (Orono, Minn.), the course emphasized the importance of centering participants\u2019 voices. \u201cQueer and trans stories in the media are often framed around tragedy, which can be harmful,\u201d they said. \u201cThis course focuses on the power of people telling their own stories, rather than it being extracted and told for them. Hearing people\u2019s stories told through their voice\u2014literally their voice\u2014is really important.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Sonnabend \u201927 (Potomac, Md.) interviewed four people they had admired for a long time, including folks involved in reproductive justice, trans-specific tattooing, and disability activism. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese interviews went places I didn\u2019t expect, like a tangent about the mutable sex of chickens,\u201d Sonnabend said. \u201cYou get the whole of someone\u2014their experiences, but also what makes them a person.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonnabend appreciated the class\u2019s welcoming environment: \u201cIt introduced me to some of my best friends and mentors.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As students complete their oral histories, they share clips with the class\u2014such as \u201cWhat were lessons you learned the hard way?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s rare to sit down and really listen to someone\u2019s life story,\u201d Whitely said. \u201cIt\u2019s fascinating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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