We are happy to announce that the LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory has been approved for a second round of funding by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada! The launch of ‘Collaboratory 2.0’ marks a transition to a community-embedded public history initiative, focused on building capacity by providing specialized training to LGBTQ2S+ community members in research, archiving, dissemination, and public engagement.

This exciting new Collaboratory phase has three primary goals, with three primary team members. To help us complete the archiving and creative animation of the soon-to-be-completed Trans Oral History Project is award-winning trans filmmaker Dr. Chase Joynt at the University of Victoria. We are thrilled to have Dr. Joynt on board to help turn these vital oral histories into an original short film. We will also be teaming up with Raegan Swanson, Executive Director of the ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2S+ Archive, to develop a community-based oral history program at The ArQuives, centred on the completion of 3 new oral history projects. Dr. Aaron Devor of the University of Victoria will again be joining us as we seek to create an accessible and searchable digital platform for LGBTQ2S+ oral histories at the ArQuives, and facilitate the creation of the same at the Unviersity of Victoria’s Transgender Archives.

There are exciting things ahead for the Colaboratory as we move into this second phase. As we gather rich primary resources and make existing ones more publicly accessible than ever before, we will continue our work to preserve LGBTQ2S+ history for future generations while creating a “usable past” for those in the present.