Co-creating a “usable past” for LGBTQ+ people in the present.

About Us

Founded in 2014, the LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory is directed by Prof. Elspeth Brown and based at the University of Toronto. As the largest LGBTQ oral history project in North American history, the Collaboratory connects archives across Canada and the U.S. to produce a digital history hub for the research and study of gay, lesbian, queer, and trans oral histories.

In collaboration with The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives and the Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria, we are preserving hundreds of life stories using new methodologies in digital history, collaborative research, and archival practice. The project develops these methods through practice: our collaborators connect to share resources and ideas, but also roll up their sleeves to digitize tapes and make this material available online.

Our collaborating partners from 2014-2019 also included the Digital Transgender Archive and the Archives of Lesbian Oral Testimony.

The Collaboratory is supported by a multi-year research grant from the Social Science & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Our Partners

The Collaboratory connects LGBTQ digital histories projects across Canada and the U.S. Collaborators share resources and expertise, developing new methods in conversation.

Founded in 1973, The ArQuives is one of the largest independent LGBTQ2+ archives in the world and the only archive in Canada with a mandate to collect at a national level.

A growing special collections at the University of Victoria focused on the history of pioneering transgender activists and the work they have done on behalf of their communities.

Based at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, ALOT collects and makes available the oral histories of people who presently or at one time identified as lesbian.

An online repository for transgender-related historical materials and information on archival holdings throughout the U.S., Canada, and Germany.