LGBTQ+ Workplace Equality Symposium

Join us for two days of talks and discussions about LGBTQ workplace rights, queer photography, and museum education, in conversation with the exhibition Picturing Equality: The Lambda Network at Kodak in Gallery Obscura. 

Symposium Keynote Address: Donna Rose, Elizabeth Birch

Friday, September 18 at 5 p.m. in the Dryden Theatre

Free for all. No registration required.

“Observations, Experiences, and Insights from a Journey Across Genders” and ““Revisiting the Lambda Network at Kodak: Three Decades of the LGBTQ+ Workplace Equality Movement ”

Keynote addresses by Donna Rose, author of the memoir Wrapped in Blue, and trans employee rights activist; and Attorney Elizabeth Birch, national LGBTQ workplace equality activist and head of the Human Rights Campaign from 1995–2004

Symposium Keynote Address: Dr. Elspeth Brown

Saturday, September 19 at 10 a.m. in the Dryden Theatre

Free for all. No registration required.

“Making Queer Home: Photography from the Commune to the Corporation" 

Keynote address given by Dr. Elspeth Brown, Professor of History at the University of Toronto with a response by Dr. Catherine Zuromskis, Professor of Photography at RIT. 

Symposium Panel Sessions

Saturday, September 19 from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the George Eastman Museum

Free for all. Advance registration required. Capacity limited.

11:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Tour Picturing Equality: The Lambda Network at Kodak in Gallery Obscura or other exhibitions at the museum on your own

12:15–1 p.m. Lunch in 7Crest Financial Partners Hall

1–2:15 p.m.: LGBTQ Workplace Equality: Past and Present panel

Speakers: 

• Dr. Alex Ketchum, Associate Professor, McGill University, talking about her new book, Digital Queers and High Tech Gays: The History of LGBTQ+ Cyber Activism, forthcoming from MIT Press.
• Dr. Shay Ryan Olmstead, Lecturer, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, RIT, discussing their research, “Refuse to Run Away: Transsexual Workers Fight for Civil Rights, 1969–1992.”
• Dr. Tamar Carroll, Professor of History, RIT,  curator, Picturing Equality: The Lambda Network at Kodak. 
• Moderated by Elizabeth Sapere, PhD Candidate, Department of History, University of Rochester. Sapere’s dissertation research explores the genealogy of radical feminism from the 1970s–1990s. 

2:30–3:45 p.m.: Museums and LGBTQ Inclusion panel

Speakers: 

• Dr. Monica Mercado, Associate Professor of History, Colgate, presents “Sex in the Museum.” Monica L. Mercado is an associate professor of history at Colgate University, affiliated with the programs in museum studies and women's, gender, and sexuality studies.
• Michael Lesperance, Founding Partner, Design Minds, Inc.; Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins University, presents “The AAM Welcoming Guidelines: Best Practices and LGBTQIA+ Representation in Heritage Institutions”
• Dr. Daniel Royles, Associate Professor of History, Binghamton University, presents “Community Archives and the Challenges of Preserving HIV/AIDS History”
• Ashley Hopkins-Benton, Curator of Social History, New York State Museum, presents "Uncovering and Sharing Queer History from the Collections."
• Moderated by Ellis Siepel, Lead Interpreter, Community Engagement, Genesee Country Village and Museum

4–4:45 p.m.: Flower Show (a performance lecture) by Dr. Ali Feser

Speakers:

• Ali Feser is a cultural anthropologist and interdisciplinary artist. She is writing a book about the material history of Kodak film, its ecological aftereffects in Rochester, New York, and the erosion of utopian fantasies of the capitalist "good life."  
• Respondent: Erin Fisher, Special Collections Librarian and curator of the Eastman Kodak Collection, Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation, University of Rochester River Campus Libraries.