About the Classes

The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Project started as an experiment but during the first year (2019-2020), student participants approached co-founders Karen Morris and Adam Greteman about the possibility of creating a course connected to the project. They shared with Karen and Adam that a course would allow students to dedicate time to the project amid busy schedules while also providing an opportunity to more fully flesh out the educational aspects of the project. It also would fill a gap in many students’ educations which lacked exploration and engagement with the broad histories of LGBTQ+ communities.

Students helped us see the potential of community-engaged education. Compelled by the students’ idea, Karen and Adam worked with SAIC processes to create a new course called “Generating Queers” that they were able to team teach in Fall 2020.

After several years of teaching “Generating Queers,” students again approached Karen and Adam to ask if there could be a spring course created that would allow for a continued engagement throughout the academic year for those interested and able. From this suggestion and conversation, a spring course was piloted in 2023 titled “Regenerating Queers.”

Combined, this two-course sequence provides students an opportunity to dig into the work of learning LGBTQ+ histories both through a seminar setting and in intergenerational dialogues with LGBTQ+ elders. This novel approach to education illustrates time and again the benefits of community-engaged education that brings university conversations outside of classrooms and into relationships with community members. It is not always easy, but through such educational work new understandings and relationships form connecting our pasts to our presents for changed futures.