Allan Summers
College of Liberal Arts
French
Purdue Varsity Glee Club
“Bonjour tout le monde! Je m’appelle Allan Summers. I am a senior in the college of Liberal Arts studying French. I identify as a cisgender gay male and as African American. In my spare time, I like to sing, write music, and dance. I am so fortunate to be a part of this inaugural trip. I hope to be abode to take all that I learn on this trip and have those “tough” conversation and help educate the public and quicken the nation conscious when it comes to LGBTQ history and current issuers. I hope to bring my person skill and empathy to the group. I feel that my life experiences give me a unique perspective and I’m eager to shares ideas with anyone who’ll listen. I hope to be a better, smarter, and more conscious person after this trip. I want to be inspired inside and out. Are we there yet?”
My-Lan Lê
Major: Philosophy and Brain & Behavioral Sciences
My name is My-Lan Lê and I am an aspiring philosopher and psychologist. My philosophical interests include thinking about ethics, existentialism, metaphysics, as well as social and political philosophies; my psychological interests include psychological disorders and their methods of treatment, human personality and behavior, as well as cognitive sciences. I am particularly interested in the intersection of cognition and philosophy and the importance of bringing the study of philosophy (as a whole) into modernity.
I am a very curious person; as such, I constantly observe, analyze, and pursue knowledge in the form of understanding. Throughout my life, I have always been fascinated with how people come to understand and identify themselves as themselves in themselves. Particularly, I think about perception the most– What do people see? How do they see it? How do they come to understand it to be the thing that it is, either subjectively or objectively? I see perception, namely in the way humans experience it as sensory input combined with cognition, as one of the most defining characteristics of what it means to be human and able to experience human conditions of existence.
Growing up, I was forced into a closet of sorts– I was denied the opportunity to express myself as I understood myself at the time, for instance, whether it was my choice of music, fashion sense, or friends I hung out with (and I hung out with as diverse a crowd as I could). I come from a relatively repressed background and have tried on different identities, as it were. I operated under the assumption that it was necessary to hide myself instead of embracing and loving myself; moreover, I allowed the ideological feelings of others prevent me from fully understanding myself as being the person of whom I am. It is my goal to illuminate the closet that I was forced to live in as well as other such closets that have forced and continue to force my fellow intelligent human beings into obscurity. Knowledge truly is power– the more one knows, the more they can grow.
Rickie A. Houston
College of Liberal Arts
BA History: Medieval Renaissance Studies
Minors: Anthropology and LGBTC Studies
As a historian and Anthropologist, I believe that it is important to have a balance between both historical and anthropological venues. By understanding the cultural aspect we can better understand the choices that led to the historical events and their outcome.
My interest in history started the young age of 9 when I was in the 3rd grade while sitting in class watching in amazement as the teacher showed a film on Saint Petersburg Russia. The beautiful architecture of the town and the rich history that was presented at the time was amazing. My interest continued to grow and in 1981 my interest in the past was rejuvenated with the release of the movie Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The movie sparked the interest in archeology and anthropology and showed how instrumental they were to historians alike. My goal is to work at the Smithsonian Museum as a curator or anthropologist in the near future.
When Dr. Yvonne Pitts and Lowell Kane presented their concept of a course on Trans-Atlantic History of Sexuality, I immediately knew this is something that I wanted to be a part of. To me this course will challenge the historian in me as well as the anthropologist.
Eliot Blackburn
Graduate Student – American Studies
Eliot Blackburn is a graduate student in the American Studies Program. Broadly his research interests are gender and sexuality in modern United States History. Lately Eliot has been exploring the ways gender non conforming populations utilize technology to form and affirm community and personal identity. During his time as a Purdue undergraduate Eliot had the opportunity to intern with the Indiana General Assembly Democratic Caucus, U.S. Representative Andre Carson’s congressional campaign, and the Victory Fund’s Congressional Internship Program in Washington, D.C. Each of these opportunities exposed Eliot to the inner workings of politics and public policy and inspired him to pursue a career of advocacy and social justice.
A self-proclaimed “foodie” and football (or soccer) fan, Eliot is extremely excited for the second half of the trip that will explore Amsterdam and Paris. Eliot hopes the Trans-Atlantic Study Abroad will help him to develop a better understanding of LGBTQ history and broaden his understanding of trans-atlantic politics surrounding LGBTQ identities.
Derek McDowell
Major: Public Relations and Advertising
Minor: LGBT Studies
My name is Derek McDowell and I have a passion for real estate, activism, and science. While I will admit my science education is lacking, you will still find me watching Cosmos every week and shows like it. As for my dreams for real estate, I’m currently pursing a degree as a junior in Public Relations and Advertising. This passion stems from moving quite a bit as a child. I would watch HGTV with my mom and would help pick out new paint colors whenever we moved. At Purdue, I joined a local leasing company and worked there for a solid year. My education in real estate and sales was truly a mixture of education both inside and outside the classroom. My education in LGBTQ History and Activism is very similar in that aspect.
I started this education in fifth grade when I began to self-identify as gay. In high school, I joined the Gay Straight Alliance where I finally began to build a community. It was through this community I began to understand how the LGBTQ community was discriminated against. This is also where my passion for activism was ignited. It was my senior year when I spoke at the South Bend Common Council meeting to push for protections for sexual orientation and gender identity in education, housing, and employment. In that same year I rewrote the South Bend Community School Corporation’s bylaws to be more inclusive and include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity for both students and staff. This was before I had any formal education about LGBTQ history or activism. I didn’t even know what the pink triangle meant at this point.
Purdue University has given me the opportunity to study LGBTQ history and theory. I’m now an LGBT Minor at Purdue and I’m studying abroad to learn about LGBTQ history. All of this is to further my own knowledge so I can truly understand what I’m fighting for. Ignorance is death. Silence is death. Only through remembering the past can we preserve our history and make changes in the present. This is my goal and this is why I’m studying LGBT history.
Beth Hartman
Major: Social Studies Education
Hello! I’m Beth Hartman, thanks for visiting our page. I am a Social Studies Education major at Purdue. I am so excited to be a part of this class and to be traveling with such a wonderful group of people. I came to this class after hearing about it in Dr. Pitts’ class. I knew as soon as I heard about it that I wanted to be a part of it. I think that this course is important relative to current issues of human rights and equality as well as my future career goals.
I think there is largely a lack of education and recognition of LGBTQ History and issues in the education system in the United States and one of my career goals is to integrate women’s history and LGBTQ history into the curricula at high schools.
I also think it is important to create and maintain a safe-zone for students within their own school. This is another career goal for my future to create safe zones in high schools as well as creating a program to have faculty safe zone trained.
This class is one of the first stepping stones that I plan to take to educate myself more in the area to enable myself to assist and educate others. It’s also not a bad way to see New York City, Amsterdam, and Paris!
Angel Avina
Major: Public Health Promotion
Minor: LGBT Studies
Hola, my name Angel Avina. Just a little background, my parents are both from Guadalajara, Mexico and traveled to North Hollywood, California to live the American dream. I was born November 14, 1993, middle child out of five and moved to Indianapolis when I was about 6 years old. Growing up I always thought I was a lone when it came to sexuality, and up to my college years I never knew very much about LGBTQ history besides some virus that got around and killed people. Now, I’ve learned so much more about the rich history of our culture which is what has led me to participate in this study abroad. I want to learn more about LGBTQ cultures of other countries and the role of sexuality abroad our borders. I am currently a senior now here at Purdue University with a major in Public Health Promotion and a minor in LGBTQ Studies. After graduation, I am geared towards going to dental hygiene school to get licensed and eventually masters in. On the side though, I hope to be able to work with the LGBTQ community in my area in bettering the health of its individuals and providing a helping hand in promoting healthier lifestyles.
Gary Holman (photo above)
Major: Theater (will be soon!)
Hello, my name is Gary Holman, and my hobbies include jazz, drag queens and eating at any and all local buffets. I was born June 15, 1992( making me 22 this year) the youngest of four boys and one girl to a working-class, single mother in Indianapolis, Indiana. If being born into a working class family of five has taught me anything it has been the importance of hard work. To this day, I still use my mother as my moral compass with regards to using your own efforts to fully realize your aspirations. Speaking of aspirations, I aspire to one day be a working actor in New York City. One reason why I was actually interested in this class is because of our time spent in New York. I am currently in the process of changing my major from animal sciences to theater. Besides from New York, what also interested me in this class was a genuine interest in the history of sexualities, specifically the activism work of Act Up. Being completely honest, the only thing I really knew about Act Up, was their name and that they are aids activist, because it is mentioned in a song in the Broadway musical Rent. One thing I would like gain from this experience is a more worldly perspective with regards to not just sexuality but in general. Americans are often stereotyped as being culturally biased and sometimes forget there is an entire world out that’s a lot older than America with their own unique history and relationship with the lgbt community.
Sam Walburn
Major: History
Minor: LGBT Studies, Law and Society
Hello! I go by Sam (or Samela), I am a coffee addict, history major, and identify as queer (I don’t fit any label, and queer encompasses any identity that deviates from social norms). I spend a lot of my time promoting social justice and equality because I firmly believe that everybody matters and deserves equal respect and opportunity. I spent a semester as Vice President of the LGBTQ Student Alliance and a year as President. My goals are to obtain my Masters, PhD, and JD and be a legal historian and professor. I am especially interested in how law is used to regulate identity and oppress marginalized groups. Why does history, specifically legal history matter, one may ask. Great question! I believe that in order to improve the future and present we must understand the past. That is, in order to ensure that the law is not used to protect systems of oppression, we must understand how the law has been used to do so in the past. I am working towards minors in sociology, LGBT Studies, Classical studies, and (maybe) art and design. My favorite things include coffee, the Constitution, the Kennedy family, and yelling “But you are Blanche!”.
Jake Ramsey
Major: Pharmaceutical Sciences
My name is Jake. I am the middle child of three and was mostly raised by my mom after my parents split before I was ten. I am from a small town, but I’m not sure if I like small town life. I’m short, pale, blonde, and I have green eyes.
I would not describe myself as a social butterfly, although I definitely have become more social since coming to college. Naturally I’m pensive and usually remain silent until I think that there is something worth saying, unlike others who talk constantly but say nothing. I don’t have very many close friendships, but I deeply value the friends I do have. Because I’m not very close to my biological family, I’ve had to create a family at Purdue.
I want to go to medical school after I graduate, although it’s a choice that I just recently made. For the first two years of college, I was on track to be a pharmacist, and I even completed a semester in the Doctorate of Pharmacy program last fall. Although I love learning about pharmacology and finding out why a certain drug has a certain effect, I realized that the profession isn’t for me. I’m not sure exactly what made me change my mind, but I’d like to think it was an altruistic desire to do more for patients. Medically my interests are in infectious diseases and obesity. If I can’t get into medical school, I want to go back to college for advanced degrees in medicinal chemistry, with the goal of eventually synthesizing novel drugs for these targets.
This trip will be the first time that I have been outside of the country and I couldn’t be more excited. I’m looking forward to the art, food, and culture of the different cities.
Jynx Boyne
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Whenever I say “hi, I’m Jynx, and I’m studying abroad as a BME this summer,” people immediately asked “Are you going to Ireland? You must be so excited!” Well, they’re talking about the BME study abroad focusing on healthcare systems and healthcare design, and they are making an adequate guess. But, obviously, I’m not going to Ireland.
Interestingly enough, I’m still trying to work on healthcare systems. Partnering with my school (Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering), I’m looking to use this study abroad to help build connections with a group of people that normally get overlooked in the healthcare system and in healthcare delivery. My job (though I use that term lightly since I set myself up for this) is to map out a brief history of LGBT+ healthcare and the effects the system (or lack thereof) has on the community and what that could mean for the future. My personal goal is to show the others in BME that this is yet another place where we can make a difference, and hopefully encourage more engineering students to branch out into the more “people” side of medicine.
As a gender-non conforming individual myself, this specific “brand” of healthcare strikes home for me, and I find it important to break down the barriers stereotypically imposed by the STEM majors.
Other than that, I’m basically a biomedical engineer on a history study abroad and I don’t speak a lick of French. So guess it’s a good thing that I’m pretty decent at charades.
Abby Schneller
Major: Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Sociology
Minor: LGBT studies
Hi! My name is Abby Schneller and I happened upon this class when Lowell visited my Intro to LGBT Studies class in the fall. I’d just been bitten by the travel bug after a two-week tour of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France with the Glee Club, Bells, and fellow Purduettes. Now I can’t get enough and I am so grateful for this opportunity to study LGBT history abroad! I’m a Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Sociology major with a minor in LGBT studies. I’m also a student in the College of Liberal Arts Honors Program. I love learning about and discussing anything related to feminism and LGBT issues. I’m about to enter my junior year, and after graduation, I’m thinking about continuing with my education, though the details are still very fuzzy. I’m from Carmel, IN and I came to Purdue because I loved the options, opportunities, and experiences I’d get from a big school. This is my second time visiting Europe, though I never thought I’d be able to study abroad when I first got here. Now I’m studying something I love and getting tons of amazing experiences. I’m so looking forward to learning all about this important part of history in these exciting cities!
INSTRUCTORS
Dr. Yvonne Pitts, Associate Professor – Department of History
Professor Pitts received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 2006. Her book titled Family, Law, and Inheritance in America: A Social and Legal History of Nineteenth Century Kentucky and was published Spring 2013 by Cambridge University Press. It explores the tensions and contradictions in the standard of sanity required to write a valid will. Focusing on nineteenth century Kentucky as a legal and geographical border state, it examines questions of moral obligation, free will, and how ordinary people understood their most intimate relationships. Traversing the histories of property, disability, insanity, and women, it analyzes how ordinary people and legal elites understood family and used law to make claims on each other.
Her current research interests include exploring how legal capacity was a disputed standard which was antecedent to the rights of citizenship, including suffrage. She is in the early stages of a project on how understandings of property evolved before and after the Civil War, focusing on nuisance law, vagrancy, and land. Professor Pitts teaches courses in U.S. constitutional history, the history of sexual regulation, race and the law, and American legal culture.
Lowell Kane, Director – LGBTQ Center – Division of Diversity and Inclusion
I am overjoyed to participate in this inaugural Study Abroad opportunity with so many wonderful students, and an amazing co-leader, colleague, and friend – Dr. Yvonne Pitts. Seeing this grow from a vision we shared nearly two years ago over many cups of coffee into a fully developed six week, six credit, and academically rigorous program has been quite an exciting ride…and I’m certain there are many great things still ahead!
I believe that studying abroad is a life changing experience. It has been such a privilege linking classroom learning with service work and organizations, museum collections, public health, archives, activists, and community spaces. I’m looking forward to connecting our students with the amazing groups and activists that have inspired me personally for more than 15 years as a part of this movement. I eagerly anticipate the ideas and changes that will occur as a result of this study abroad program’s impact on 12 phenomenal student leaders. Follow our travels, read our blogs, ask questions, challenge us, encourage us, and be prepared for great things!!!
Lowell’s professional bio and LGBTQ Center information available at: http://www.purdue.edu/lgbtq/about/staff.html