Mapping the Movement
Land, Body, Spirit, Work and Queer Organizing in North Carolina
My research examines how queer people in North Carolina built movements for justice from the late 1970s through the 2010s. I focus on how organizing happens over time, asking not only how movements emerge, but what allows them to endure.
Queer here names more than identity. It reflects a political formation of people whose lives and commitments place them outside dominant norms, including Black women, working-class organizers, radical activists, and others resisting white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and heteronormativity.
At the center of my work is the idea that organizing itself is a form of knowledge. Drawing on the movement-generated framework of Land, Body, Spirit, and Work, I trace how people built relationships, developed shared analysis, and created structures that could sustain collective action. This research reframes efforts like the 1990 Senate race against Jesse Helms, not simply as electoral campaigns, but as spaces where coalition was forged and long-term infrastructure took shape.
Across archival research and oral histories, my work documents how communities built power with limited resources, transforming moments of convergence into lasting movement.
These stories preserve a history that is often overlooked and celebrate the courage, creativity, and care that have driven queer resistance in the South.
Every story shared adds to a legacy of struggle and transformation that can guide and inspire future generations.
