Carnegie Mellon University
October 01, 2013

Media Advisory: Carnegie Mellon Presents George Chauncey and “Homosexuality and the Post-World War II Urban Crisis”

Contact: Shilo Rea / 412-268-6094 / shilo@cmu.edu

George ChaunceyEvent: Carnegie Mellon University’s 2013 Kim and Eric Giler Lecture in the Humanities will feature award-winning author and gay rights historian George Chauncey for a talk on “Homosexuality and the Post-World War II Urban Crisis.”

Chauncey, the Samuel Knight Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University, is best known for his book “Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940.” The book won the 1994 Organization of American Historians’ Merle Curti Prize for the best book in social history, the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for the best book in any field of history, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and Lambda Literary Award. He also wrote “Why Marriage? The History Shaping Today’s Debate over Gay Equality.”

Since 1993, Chauncey has participated as a historian in more than 20 gay rights court cases, including four that reached the United States Supreme Court: Windsor v. United States, which recently struck down the core of the Defense of Marriage Act; Hollingsworth v. Perry (2013); Lawrence v. Texas (1996); and Romer v. Evans (1996).

“This should be a great lecture,” said Tim Haggerty, director of the Humanities Scholars Program in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “Not only is Chauncey one of the leading historians in the country today, he is discussing the intersection of two dynamic fields, gay and lesbian studies and urban history.  I hope that anyone involved with either field will be able to attend.”

Kim and Eric Giler established the Giler Lecture in the Humanities to support visits from leading scholars and internal workshop events for students in the Humanities Scholars Program and across campus. Kim Giler is a 1978 graduate of CMU with degrees in English and Spanish. Eric Giler graduated from CMU with an MBA and is the founder and CEO of Brooktrout, Inc., which develops high tech telecommunications equipment.

For more information on the Dietrich College’s Humanities Scholars Program, visit http://www.hss.cmu.edu/hsp/.

When: 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 10

Where: Porter Hall 100, Carnegie Mellon University

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George Chauncey, pictured above, is an award-winning author and gay rights historian best known for his book “Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940.”