The mission of the WSU Queer Archives is to share untold stories of diverse queer rural life and its interconnections between urban spaces while centering joy, community, and intersectional resistance. Part of this broader project, the Queer Archive Oral History Project interviews members of the queer community within the Palouse. The Queer Archives Oral History Project reflects the Queer Archives overall mission by contributing and sharing queer narratives directly through storytelling by members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The Queer Archives Oral History Project collection contains a series of interviews with individuals who have had connections to WSU or the Palouse region more broadly. The collection includes transcripts of the interviews. Interviews took place in 2023-2024. Josie Cohen-Rodríguez and Drew Gamboa conducted interviews over Zoom. Some of the interviews conducted by Lannan O. Ruiz took place at a "Queering the Archives" community engagement event on March 28, 2024. All files are digital.
Interviews are arranged alphabetically.
The interviews have been made available online as part of the
The majority of this collection is open and available for research use. Individual interviews may be restricted, anonymized, or embargoed based on the deed of gift.
Copyright restrictions apply. Release letters were signed and copyright resides with Washington State University Libraries.
[Item description]
Washington State University Queer Archives Oral History Project, 2023-2024 (Cage 967)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Josie Cohen-Rodríguez, Drew Gamboa, and Lannan O. Ruiz created this collection for inclusion the Washington State University Libraries in 2023-2024.
The repository expects to receive additions to this collection.
Drew Gamboa and Lotus Norton-Wisla processed this collection in 2024. Video files were received as mp4 files, and audio as mp3 files, created from Zoom recordings or mp4 files using a digital camera. Transcripts were received as VTT text files, or transcribed by Gamboa from video files, and converted to PDF format for online access.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
Interview with Pau Abustan. Details experiences and differences between living in California and Washington, UC Santa Barbara and WSU, forming the Queer People of Color Alliance (QPOCA), their work as an activist-scholar, their experiences being an educator, and their thoughts on what the queer community may face today.
Interview with Anonymous Alumnx. Details experiences as a student athlete at WSU, the queer network of the late-1990s in the Palouse and at WSU, their film projects A Queer Film and My Young Life as a Boy.
Interview with Nikki Brueggeman. Details hometown of Walla Walla, experiences as a student at WSU, what the space of student centers such as GIESORC meant to them, a summer in Pullman, leading the COVID-19 Oral History Project, and her experiences living outside the United States.
Interview with Rigoberto Contreras. Details growing up in the rural town of Sunnyside, Washington and as a child of migrants, the importance of Catholic faith throughout his life, being an undergraduate student at Washington State University, moving to Tucson, Arizona to work as a mental health therapist for queer youth, and current life in Portland, Oregon.
Interview with Marcia Darling. Discusses being queer as a local of the Palouse region in a non-queer environment, developing a language and growing to understand their true selves, and how being queer is a radical act. This interview took place at the "Queering the Archives" community engagement event on March 28, 2024.
Interview with Rotem Golan. Discusses being openly queer, being comfortable addressing their identity, and growing up in Connecticut. This interview took place at the "Queering the Archives" community engagement event on March 28, 2024.
Interview with Tina Krauss. Details stories around life before moving to Pullman as a child of parents in the military, initially coming out as queer, community involvement and activism on campus and with organizations outside of the Palouse area, and dynamics within the queer community during the 1990s.
Interview with Olivia Pavek. Discusses growing up in Montana and how the Palouse region has been an escape from a more difficult environment to be queer and how queerness to them remains the relationships they've built with other queer people. This interview took place at the "Queering the Archives" community engagement event on March 28, 2024.
Interview with Bobby Selden. Discusses campus climate at WSU while being queer, queer history in the Palouse region, and how gender shows up in educational environments and institutional processes. This interview took place at the "Queering the Archives" community engagement event on March 28, 2024.
Interview with Maureen Smith. Details early life experiences living in a military family during the 1950s and 1960s, growing into adulthood during the late-1960s during the Vietnam War and protests on college campuses, experiences in the Peace Corps in Niger (Africa), life as a mother in the 1970s, and eventually settling in the Palouse area. Maureen describes her work at the University of Idaho in human resource development and at Washington State University (WSU). At WSU, Maureen directed a number of student centers such as the Gender Identity/Expression and Sexual Orientation Resource Center (GIESORC). Maureen shares countless stories working with students at GIESORC in her interview.
Interview with Brian Stack. Details time during undergraduate studies at the University of Rhode Island, graduate studies at WSU, a digital history project about gay history in Pullman, and current roles as an educator at Spokane Falls College.
Interview with Camille Vaughn. Discusses experiences being queer as an employee at WSU, coming out and how their partnership supported the journey of being open about their queerness, advocacy, and the underground queer community in the Palouse region. This interview took place at the "Queering the Archives" community engagement event on March 28, 2024.
Interview with Viv Vivier. Discusses their faith and difficulties addressing their queerness, how they have generated community, being supported by people in the Palouse region, and queer joy. This interview took place at the "Queering the Archives" community engagement event on March 28, 2024.
Interview with Ashe Walker. Discusses experiences as a trans individual, coming out, and what it means to be queer in the Palouse region. This interview took place at the "Queering the Archives" community engagement event on March 28, 2024.
Interview with Mary Welcome. Details growing up with parents in the military, experiences with family part of the queer community, and finding places that felt safe and like home during their life. Recounts a Perfect Palouse Day, community-building practices across rural queer communities in the United States, and the Brokeback collective.