Catherine Kelly (KCL) - 2020-21 Students

“Living in their pockets”: Lesbian feminist bonds across institutional space

My research explores a mid to late twentieth century lesbian feminist network in the United States, including such figures as Joanna Russ, Jill Johnston, Audre Lorde, Kate Millett, Gayle Rubin, Charlotte Bunch, Monique Wittig, Ann Allen Shockley and Bertha Harris. I am interested in the threads of communication, collaboration and mutual influence between them, and in tracing tracing these connective threads through three overlapping institutional spaces: the university, where many of these figures cross paths and form bonds; the literary press, where they collaborate; and the archive, where their crossings and collaborations are recorded and/or concealed.