Awards / Current and Recent Graduate Students Awards

John D’Emilio LGBTQ History Dissertation Award

Recognizing the best PhD dissertation in US LBGTQ history.


Overview

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: OCTOBER 1, 2023

The John D’Emilio LGBTQ History Dissertation Award is given annually by the Organization of American Historians to the best PhD dissertation in US LGBTQ history. The award is named for John D’Emilio, a pioneer in LGBTQ history.


Requirements

Dissertations submitted for consideration must be completed during the period July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023 to be eligible for the 2024 D’Emilio Award.

Submission Process

Please send a PDF of your complete dissertation, abstract, and table of contents in one email to all of the D’Emilio committee members. The subject line should be “2024 John D’Emilio LGBTQ History Dissertation Award.”

All material must be received by 11:59 p.m. (PST) on October 1, 2023.

Ernesto Chavez, Co-chair
[email protected]
Evelyn Schlatter, Co-chair
[email protected]
Cookie Woolner
[email protected]
Kelsey Henry
[email protected]
Paul Renfro
[email protected]
Rene Esparza
[email protected]

Past Winners

2023

Austin Randall Williams, University of Missouri–Kansas City. “The Ordinance Project: Commemorating Kansas City’s LGBTQ Landmark Legislation” 

2022

Beans Velocci, University of Pennsylvania, “Binary Logic: Race, Expertise, and the Persistence of Uncertainty in American Sex Research” (dissertation completed at Yale University, with advisers Joanne Meyerowitz and Joanna Radin)

2021

Elisabeth Frances George, K-12 educator, curriculum developer, and guidance counselor, “Lesbian and Gay Life in the Queen City and Beyond: Resistance, Space, and Community Mobilization in the Southwest Missouri Ozarks” (dissertation completed at SUNY Buffalo under the direction of Dr. Susan Cahn)

2020

Caroline Radesky, University of Iowa (dissertation competed at the University of Iowa under the direction of Leslie Schwalm), “Feeling Historical: Same-Sex Desire and Historical Imaginaries, 1880–1920”

2019

Scott De Orio, Northwestern University, “Punishing Queer Sexuality in the Age of LGBT Rights” (dissertation completed at the University of Michigan with the direction of advisers Matthew Lassiter [Chair], David Halperin, Gayle Rubin, and William Novak)

2018

Chelsea Del Rio, CUNY–LaGuardia Community College, “‘That Women Could Matter’: Building Lesbian Feminism in California, 1955–1982”

2017

Ian Michael Baldwin, University of Redlands, “Family, Housing, and the Political Geography of Gay Liberation in Los Angeles County, 1960–1986” (University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Adviser: Professor Marcia Gallo)