After completing my PhD in American Studies at the University at Buffalo in 2012, I was a faculty member in History and Interdisciplinary Studies and director of the program in Women’s and Gender Studies at SUNY Fredonia from 2013 to 2021. My interest in U.S. LGBTQ history and community engagement led me to public history and historic preservation. Place–the way geographic locations become invested with historical significance–plays a particularly important role in the history of LGBTQ people who often need to find or make community outside our biological families or places of origin. However, we tend to focus on LGBTQ life in large cities as opposed to areas of the country like Upstate New York with mid-sized cities and rural villages and towns.

In 2021, out of a desire to pursue more community-focused historical work, I enrolled in Cornell University’s Master of Arts program in Historic Preservation Planning. While at Cornell, I led a successful effort to locally landmark the building that housed the headquarters of Firebrand Books, a nationally recognized and multiple award-winning feminist, lesbian, and anti-racist press founded by community organizer and editor Nancy K. Bereano in 1984. The Firebrand building, as it is now known, is Ithaca’s first landmark connected to women’s and LGBTQ history.