Congratulations to History MA student Lex Flavelle, whose permanent digital exhibition, Coming Up Aces: Asexual Voices in the Archives, was featured in the Fall 2024 edition of the Archives Association of Ontario’s quarterly periodical, Off the Record. Flavelle developed the digital exhibition, which is hosted by the ArQuives, Canada’s largest 2SLGBTQIA+ archives, as part of a 2023 student placement in Prof. Jennifer Bonnell’s HIST 4840: Public History seminar. A capstone course for the Department of History’s Cross-Disciplinary Certificate in Public History, HIST 4840 allows students to apply their skills to work placements with public history institutions during the Winter term.
Coming Up Aces juxtaposes Progressive Era feminist spinster histories with 21st-century asexual-spectrum zines. The exhibition asserts the presence of asexual subjectivities in the archive beyond the scope of current terminology. Archives Association of Ontario reviewer, Isobel Carnegie, lauds Coming Up Aces as a “regenerative form of outreach” that uses documented community knowledge to present underserved queer pasts.
Flavelle remains involved with the ArQuives as a digital curator. She is currently developing an exhibition on Maggie’s Toronto Sex Workers Action Project while pursuing her MA in History here at York.