Thursday, October 12, 2023 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM (ET)
Center for the Arts - Screening Room 112North Campus
Megan Vaughan716-645-5200ub-irewg@buffalo.edu
Register for the October 12 event here.
Dr. Jeff Iovannone will discuss his award-winning, GIS-based exhibit Leslie Feinberg’s Buffalo: Historic Sites in Stone Butch Blues in the context of what he refers to as the “place of place,” or the role and importance of place and place-making, in U.S. LGBTQ history. The talk will highlight sites represented in transgender lesbian writer and activist Leslie Feinberg’s multiple award-winning novel Stone Butch Blues connected to the University at Buffalo, as well as the Firebrand Books Building in Ithaca, New York, as representative examples. Iovannone argues that preservationists have an imperative to conserve both LGBTQ places and spaces and will offer strategies that move from theory to practice, including when place and space are contested.
Dr. Jeff Iovannone (Yo-van-oh-nay) is a historian and historic preservation planner from Buffalo, New York who specializes in the social history of the built environment, LGBTQ heritage conservation, and queer site-based history. He holds a PhD in American Studies from the University at Buffalo and a Masters in Historic Preservation Planning with a minor in LGBT Studies from Cornell University. While at Cornell, Iovannone was the recipient of the Biddy Martin Graduate Prize for LGBTQ+ research for his digital, GIS-based exhibit Leslie Feinberg’s Buffalo: Historic Sites in Stone Butch Blues and the prestigious John W. Reps Award for superior academic excellence in historic preservation planning. From 2013 to 2021, he was a faculty member in the departments of History and Interdisciplinary Studies at the State University of New York at Fredonia, directed the program in Women’s and Gender Studies, and designed and taught the university’s first courses on LGBTQ history. Iovannone is a trailblazer in documenting the LGBTQ history of Upstate New York. In June 2020, he co-founded the Gay Places Initiative with Preservation Buffalo Niagara, a joint project that documents LGBTQ historic places in Buffalo. In 2022, he led a successful effort to locally landmark the building that housed the nationally recognized lesbian and feminist press Firebrand Books in Ithaca, New York. He also interned with the Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York and consults for the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, a cultural heritage initiative that is a national leader in LGBTQ preservation. Iovannone is currently a preservation planner with the Landmark Society of Western New York.
This event is presented by the UB Gender Institute in partnership with the University Archives.
Photo Description from left to right: (1) Author photograph by Bill Hackwell that appeared on the back cover of the 1993 Firebrand Books edition of Stone Butch Blues. Firebrand Books records, #7670. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. (2) 1993 Firebrand Books edition of Stone Butch Blues. Book design by Betsy Bayley. Cover design by Debra Engstrom. Dr. Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western New York, Archives & Special Collections Department, E. H. Butler Library, SUNY Buffalo State. (3) Jeffry Iovannone, in front of the Firebrand Books building, taken by Christine O'Malley.