Prizes

Announcement of Prize Competition Winners: 2002

The Committee on Lesbian and Gay History, an affiliated society of the American Historical Association, is pleased to announce the winners of its 2002 prize competitions.

The 2002 Audre Lorde Prize for outstanding article on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual, and/or queer history published in English in 2000 or 2001 has been awarded to David Halperin for “How to Do the History of Male Homosexuality,” GLQ 6, no. 1 (2000): 87-124.

The Gregory Sprague Prize for outstanding published or unpublished paper, article, book chapter, or dissertation chapter on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual, and/or queer history completed in English in 2000 or 2001 by a graduate student has been awarded to Martin Meeker (University of Southern California Ph.D.) for “Behind the Mask of Respectability: Reconsidering the Mattachine Society and Male Homophile Practice, 1950s and 1960s,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 10, no. 1 (2001): 78-116. The Sprague Prize is generously endowed by the Gerber/Hart Library in Chicago.

Named as first runner-up for the Lorde Prize is Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, “Was Mom Chung a ‘Sister Lesbian’?: Asian American Gender Experimentation and Interracial Homoeroticism,” Journal of Women’s History 13, no. 1 (2001): 58-82. Named as first-runner-up for the Sprague Prize is Thomas Foster, “Locating Sodomy in 18th Century Massachusetts,” unpublished dissertation chapter, Department of History, Johns Hopkins University.

The 2002 Prize Committee was chaired by Chuck Middleton (University of Maryland) and included Margot Canaday (University of Minnesota) and David Serlin (Albright College). The Committee prepared the following commendations:

Audre Lorde Prize Winner: “Halperin’s magnificent essay makes a profound contribution not only to the history of male homosexuality but also to the intellectual study of Western sexualities. By persuasively establishing a taxonomy of diverse – and often contradictory – categories of premodern homosocial and homoerotic behaviors before the construction of the male homosexual in the nineteenth century, Halperin’s essay provides readers with a brilliant template for how to think and write about histories of same-sex intimacy. The committee also recognized Halperin’s ability to synthesize and explain disparate historical materials in a lucid, engaging style. Scholars and teachers in a wide variety of academic disciplines will surely read and argue about this seminal work for many years to come.”

Audre Lorde Prize First Runner-Up: “Wu’s groundbreaking essay engages thoughtfully with two historiographical niches that have been conspicuously underdeveloped: our knowledge of female sexuality in Asian American culture and our understanding of same-sex intimacies among Asian American and white women. Using the case history of Margaret Chung, the first U.S.-born woman of Chinese descent to become a physician, Wu elucidates the extent to which anxieties about gender and ethnic nonnormativity exerted a powerful influence over Asian American women in the early decades of the twentieth century. By showing the complex tensions in Chung’s professional and personal lives, Wu’s essay is a model for understanding the delicate interplay of sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and national identity in historical perspective.”

Gregory Sprague Prize Winner: “In his compelling article, Meeker invites historians to reconsider the place that the Mattachine Society has held for nearly two decades in GLBT historiography. In particular, Meeker questions the standard interpretation of the Mattachine as adopting a somewhat cowardly conservative sexual politics focused on assimilation. He suggests instead that Mattachine leaders wore a ‘mask of respectability’ as a deliberate and effective political tactic. Such dissembling disguised the group’s activities during the 1950s and 1960s, and has had the lasting consequence, Meeker tells us, of ensuring that ‘the homophiles are now remembered precisely through the dissembled image they presented to the public rather than the work they conducted behind the mask.’ Meeker’s work represents an important second generation in the historiography of the homophile movement, providing historians with a more nuanced point of origin from which to study the gay civil rights movement.”

Gregory Sprague Prize First Runner-Up: “Foster’s work, which explores the formulation of ideas about sodomy in 18th century Massachusetts, makes a highly original contribution to the vastly understudied historiography of same-sex sexuality in early America. Using such varied sources as court records, sermons, newspaper accounts, and anti-Free Mason tracts, Foster draws three important conclusions regarding ideas about sodomy in 18th century Massachusetts: First, sodomy was linked to anxiety about the developing commercial economy; second, sodomy was viewed not only as a behavior but as a marker of an inner disposition; and third, discourses about sodomy were employed in 18th century political satire.”

For further information:
CLGH Chair: Leisa Meyer, ldmeye@wm.edu
CLGH Website: www.usc.edu/clgh

For further information on CLGH and CLGH prizes, please contact
Leisa D. Meyer
Director of Women's Studies
Associate Professor of History
College of William and Mary
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
(757)221-2453 or (757)221-3737 (offices)
ldmeye@wm.edu