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Generating Queers: The Class
In response to student requests, project co-founders Adam Greteman and Karen Morris created and co-taught a new course in Fall 2020 entitled “Generating Queers” at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Now in its third year, the course offers a hybrid pedagogical experience alternating between class seminars and intergenerational dialogues. Within the seminars, students engage key texts, documentaries, and podcasts that address various LGBTQ+ historical and present circumstances. Paired with this work are intergenerational dialogues that allow students and elders to think through such issues in dialogue with experiences that span decades.
Story-telling has become a focus of our intergenerational dialogues, and we often spend the first hour of each meeting listening to participants talk about their personal experiences with topics and moments important to LGBTQ+ history. Storytelling allows members across generations to learn about and see commonalities and differences in lived experience, bringing to life the scholarship engaged in seminars.
For their final project, students and elders work in small intergenerational groups to create something that embodies their experiences. You can check out projects from past years below.
Project Spotlight: On Queer Joy
During the fall of 2020, students collaborated with other Dialogue participants in small intergenerational groups on projects exploring and celebrating the many layers of “queer joy.” Read through the project descriptions below and follow the links to learn more.
- Queerful Diaries: A Fashion Blog
- Queer Transparencies
- Anthology & Visual Essay
- Places of Queer Joy
- Storytelling On Queer Joy

Queerful is a blog and platform that supports individual storytelling within the many generations of...

When first asked to articulate the meaning of queer joy, many of us struggled to find the language. Acknowledging...

The Queer* Joy Project anthology and visual essay tries to bring to life the oral histories that we share...

Esti Shapiro, Sarah Evers, Lillian Climo, David Hubbell A group-generated map documenting places of queer...

For the culmination of the 2020 semester, students in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Intergenerational...
Learn More About Us
History of the Project
Read about how The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project came to fruition, and the transformations it has undergone since its inception.
Our Story
Read an introduction to The LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project, where you can learn about intentions for the project and how we got our name
Dialogue Participants
View all participants of the Dialogues – past and present – and get to know them through pictures, brief bios, and links