Mediating Queer and Trans Pasts

The Homosaurus as Queer Information Activism

Bibliographic Data

ID20508995
AuthorsMarika Cifor (0000-0002-1645-7158, Information School, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA, corresponding author), K J Rawson (0000-0001-5755-3624, English and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA)
Year2023
Volume26
Issue11
Pages2168-2185
Publication date2023-08-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInformation Communication & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-118X • E-ISSN: 1468-4462
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369118x.2022.2072753
OpenAlexW4280590465
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited30

Libraries and archives have long been rich sites of exploration for LGBTQ+ people in search of self-understanding, identification, shared experience, and community. Yet the information infrastructures that guide every quest for queer and trans information remain silently powerful mediators of our research processes. Through an extended discussion of the Homosaurus, an international LGBTQ linked data vocabulary that the authors helped to develop, this article explores how queer information activism can confront the impoverished tools available for describing queer and trans resources. By focusing on both “corrective” and “analytic” strategies, the authors argue that the Homosaurus must work to expand the queer and trans terminology available for subject description while still challenging the structure and process of classificatory systems as always in tension with our queer aspirations

Media studies · Queer · Sociology · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Copyright and Intellectual Property · Gender Studies · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy

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