Dr. Andi Schwartz was awarded a Connection Grant for the project "Visualizing Queer Femme Narrative Histories of Toronto Using Digital Mapping," which is a part of a larger project called the Femme Story Archives (funded by a SSHRC IDG: "'On Our Own Terms': An Oral History and Archive of Queer Femme Community in Culture in Toronto, 1990-2000").
The project is being undertaken with community partner The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives and Professor Chloë Brushwood Rose (Co-Investigator), alongside Dr. Sarah York-Bertram (Collaborator & Riley Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Winnipeg). The Femme Story Archives aims to build an archive of femme cultural history in Toronto through the collection of oral history interviews and ephemera, including flyers, posters, publications, photographs, and more.
Dr. Schwartz stated that "using oral history interviews and digital storytelling media will enable femmes to tell their stories in their own words. This research-creation project will explore the capacity of digital storytelling media to tell nuanced and reparative histories." Additionally, the team will be building a permanent digital exhibit of this archive for The ArQuives website and will be curating an in-person exhibit at The ArQuives in October.
The Connection Grant project will create a digital "storymap" using the oral history interviews and visual ephemera to create a way for the public to access and interact with this history.