Brianna McGruder oral history interview, 2018 January 23
Description
Junior student Brianna McGruder charts her life path to Charlotte, North Carolina, and UNC Charlotte, and anticipates her upcoming venture into documenting local LGBTQ+ history through oral history interviewing. Ms. McGruder reflects on her experiences in further education, starting at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City where she studied English; continuing with her growing interest and passion for Women's Studies at De Anza Community College in Cupertino, California; and concluding with her return to a focus on English and Communications at UNC Charlotte. She relates her involvement in a project while at De Anza College to create a Women's Center on the campus, which taught her about community organizing and the complexities of social justice activism, and which left her with a fascination for the history of feminism and women's movements. Ms. McGruder concludes the interview with a reflection on how she became interested in Charlotte's LGBTQ+ history after taking a class, Modern Gay America, with Joshua Burford (Assistant Director for Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Multicultural Resource Center) at UNC Charlotte. This connection led to Ms. McGruder's growing interest in local feminist history and the Charlotte Women's Center, which was active in the Dilworth neighborhood for a period starting in the 1960s. Ms. McGruder details her intention to document this history through interviews with women who were involved in the center. Other topics discussed include Ms. McGruder's thoughts about social structures and mores in the San Jose area of California, which she found to be inclusive, in comparison with social structures and mores in the Charlotte area of North Carolina, which she found to be more bound by wealth and status; and her pride in her mother's life path, which has inspired her own.
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