OAH to create a prize in honor of historian John D’Emilio, who writes about LGBT history

Dear Supporters of LGBTQ History:

The Organization of American Historians (OAH) Committee on the Status of LGBTQ Historians and Histories is very proud to announce the launch of a fundraising campaign to support the creation of an annual Ph.D. dissertation prize in U.S. LGBTQ history.

The prize will be named in honor of John D’Emilio and administered by the OAH. John’s groundbreaking Columbia University Ph.D. dissertation on the history of the U.S. gay and lesbian movement, completed in 1982 and published asSexual Politics, Sexual Communities by the University of Chicago Press in 1983, has influenced countless scholars and activists, in and beyond the discipline of history and the field of LGBTQ studies. His outstanding work as a teacher, scholar, mentor, activist, and public intellectual at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, and the University of Illinois, Chicago, along with his many contributions to the growth and development of LGBTQ history, make him a deserving recipient of this honor.

In the context of John’s recent retirement, we think this is the perfect moment to launch this campaign. The OAH, which gave its Roy Rosenzweig Distinguished Service Award to John in 2013, is the ideal institutional sponsor. The fields of U.S. history and LGBTQ studies will benefit greatly from the establishment of an OAH prize that honors the best new Ph.D. dissertations on U.S. LGBTQ history.

Please show your support by making a tax-deductible donation using the attached form. We welcome contributions of any size, but hope you will be as generous as possible. Join us in honoring John D’Emilio and supporting the work of emergent leaders in the field of U.S. LGBTQ history.