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Status: PhD Candidate

Adviser: Katherine Turk

Graduate Email: hooper@unc.edu Twitter

Education

B.A. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2014): English

M.A. University of Mississippi (2019): Southern Studies
Thesis: "The Carolina Gay Association, the Southeastern Gay Conferences, and Gay Liberation in the 1970S South”

M.F.A University of Mississippi (2020): Documentary Studies
Thesis: "The Southern Front: Gay Liberation Activists In The U.S. South And Public History Through Audiovisual Exhibition"

Research Interests

I study queer, Southern, and activist histories in the twentieth century United States, particularly through student gay liberation activists on college campuses in the U.S. South during the 1970s. I am interested in how queer Southerners in the mid- and late twentieth century, specifically gay liberation activists, understood themselves simultaneously as of the place they were in and as part of a national movement. My dissertation research focuses on the Carolina Gay Association’s founding in 1975, the Southeastern Gay Conferences (SEGC), and gay liberation movements throughout the Southeast. Additionally, I have been the Carolina Pride Alumni Network’s Fellow for 2020-2021and 2021-2022 school years, working with the Southern Oral History Program and Wilson Library respectively to record and exhibit the histories of LGBTQ+ people at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.