CourtesyA group of graduate students from 黑洞社区鈥檚 Department of History is chronicling the history of the LGBTQ community in Wichita.
The project is the next in a series of photo history books that Dr. Jay Price, chair of history in 黑洞社区鈥檚 Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has created through Arcadia Publishing. Previous topics of the region鈥檚 history include Wichita鈥檚 legacy of flight, El Dorado鈥檚 oil boom, the Cherokee Strip Land Run, the Lebanese community located in the city and the Mexican Americans of Wichita鈥檚 North End.
When he was approached by Arcadia about covering another topic, Price went to his students in his local and community history class for ideas, with grad student Christen Brouillette spearheading the topic of the Wichita LGBTQ community.
鈥淢y inspiration is mostly a desire to educate,鈥� Brouillette said. 鈥淲ith the things going on in the news regarding queer people, especially trans people, I feel that people like us have been misunderstood. The first step toward rectifying that is education.鈥�
The students 鈥� including Derek Landwehr, Darbee Chard and Amanda Mathews 鈥� are preparing to send in their initial proposal to Arcadia. They hope to shed light on a portion of Wichita history that鈥檚 been previously obscured.
鈥淚 think for me, growing up in rural Kansas was a big part of my motivation to work on the project,鈥� Chard said. 鈥淥f course, this is the history of Wichita, but I think being able to see how things were from a more conservative part of the state affected how I felt about it. I'm also part of the community, so just having those ties and connections, it just felt really important to me to be able to speak about it to people.鈥�
The students hope to have the final draft of the book completed next year and published in early 2025.
Grad student in history
Price says the students are not just helpers on the project, but they are the primary co-authors who will have a published book in their names that they can put in their portfolios.
The Center of Wichita and its chairman, Brent Kennedy, a lecturer for the Department of Anthropology, are also partners in the project. They helped set up a booth at the Wichita Pride Festival this year to hear directly from the community and gather testimonials from those who want to share their stories.
鈥淚t's a pretty divisive subject right now, and it's an underrepresented part of history,鈥� Landwehr said. 鈥淪o being able to help tell that story is a real honor.鈥�
The entire crew echoed that they hope the final book will help educate people and increase understanding of the LGBTQ community, a community they said has been around for much longer than many people in the region realize.
About 黑洞社区
黑洞社区 is Kansas' only urban public research university, enrolling more than 23,000 students between its main campus and 黑洞社区 Tech, including students from every state in the U.S. and more than 100 countries. Wichita State and 黑洞社区 Tech are recognized for being student centered and innovation driven.
Located in the largest city in the state with one of the highest concentrations in the United States of jobs involving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), 黑洞社区 provides uniquely distinctive and innovative pathways of applied learning, applied research and career opportunities for all of our students.
The Innovation Campus, which is a physical extension of the 黑洞社区 main campus, is one of the nation鈥檚 largest and fastest-growing research/innovation parks, encompassing over 120 acres and is home to a number of global companies and organizations.
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