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Shortly after joining the St. Olaf faculty, Assistant Professor of History Averill Earls searched the College Archives database for stories and reflections from LGBTQ+ Oles.

“As a scholar of queer history, that’s always the first thing I look for,” she says.

She didn’t find much. 

So when St. Olaf launched the Honest Storytelling Project this fall as part of the college’s 150th anniversary, Earls and her colleague, Assistant Professor of History Jaden Janak, knew they wanted to contribute by sharing the stories of queer Oles. Together they are working on a project to document the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ Oles over the decades. They’ll highlight their work in two of the chapters that will be included in a new book titled Honest Storytelling: A Sesquicentennial Exploration of Identity, Mission, and Vocation at St. Olaf College.

Just as importantly, they’re working with College Archives to ensure that the stories and reflections they gather become part of the official campus record.

“Collecting these stories enriches the known history of St. Olaf and its community,” Janak says. “Our biggest goal is to make sure our contribution to the Honest Storytelling Project reaches beyond the confines of the project and becomes a lasting resource for St. Olaf.”

They will share their work so far as part of an October 23 event titled “Queering the Archives: Celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month and American Archives Month.” Janak will moderate a panel discussion that includes:

• Aiden Bettine, Curator of the Transgender Oral History Project, Jean Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies
• Jae Yates, Oral Historian for the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project
• Averill Earls, LGBTQ+ Oles Oral History Project
• Kristell Benson, St. Olaf Archives
• Charlie Knieff, St. Olaf Archives and Tretter Collection Intern

This event will feature some of the stories we have collected through the project and discuss the greater stakes in doing this work. All are welcome to attend the event, which will begin at 6 p.m. in the Kings’ Dining Room in Buntrock Commons and will be followed by a reception.

Ahead of that event, Earls and Janak share what drives their work, what they’ve been struck by in the stories they’ve heard so far, and how Oles can contribute to this project.

How did the two of you come to team up for this project?
Earls: When the call for Honest Storytelling proposals went out, we both knew that we wanted to do something. We’re historians — of course we should be writing something for the college’s official history! I knew from prior searching that I wouldn’t find enough evidence in the physical archives to write a queer history of St. Olaf. I also knew that an oral history project would be helpful to us in the short term, but essential to the college community in the long term. 

Janak: Yes, Dr. Earls and I decided instead of doing separate projects, we could combine our powers and create something even better together! The idea to do oral histories was all Dr. Earls, and it has been one of the best parts of working together.

As you started working on this, how much did you know about what is and isn’t included about queer histories in the St. Olaf Archives? 
Janak: I assumed that we might have a difficult time finding information in the archives. Many archives, despite having amazing staff with aspirations to include and highlight subversive histories, struggle with funding. With that being said, I was surprised to find a wealth of information archived in the Olaf Messenger collection. For decades, St. Olaf students have been struggling for queer and trans recognition through student organizing and speaker events. Finding this information helped to contextualize our oral history interviews, and I think made for better interviews themselves!

In the interviews you’ve done up to this point, are there any stories or experiences that you’ve been really struck by?
Earls: Generally, I’ve been struck by the importance of place, space, and — interestingly — major in our LGBTQ+ Oles’ experiences, self-discovery, and community-building. A history major in the 1980s, for example, was less likely to find herself meeting lots of other queer Oles. A music major, on the other hand, was more likely to find that community, even if they weren’t out for most or any of their academic career. I’ve also been really surprised how many gay Oles were introduced to their first same-sex partner or hook-ups were set up intentionally by one of their straight friends! As a historian of sex, those stories are my favorite.

Janak: One throughline that has emerged is the tremendous level of fear students (and staff) have felt on campus. Some of that is because of socio-political context locally, regionally, and nationally. But some of that seems to stem from the institution itself. In interviews from students who were here in the 1960s all the way up until the 2010s, alumni talked about feeling deeply afraid of judgment, discrimination, and violence if they were to be fully themselves on campus. Those are the stories that stick with me because they mirror some of my own experiences as a queer and trans person. I hope that by highlighting this aspect of the St. Olaf student experience, we can begin to change the broader culture of this community into something that is inviting, inclusive, and transformative for all. 

Why is this work important?
Earls: If you do a keyword search of the St. Olaf College Archives with terms like “queer,” “gay,” “lesbian,” or “LGBTQ,” you won’t get many results. There are some — posters from events organized by GLOW (“Gay, Lesbian, or Whatever,” the student organization that was a predecessor to Queer Ole Individuals), Pride Week 2012, and a few Mess hits. But almost all are from 2010 or after, and their number in total is small. These silences reflect a few forces at play. For one, archives are made by people, with biases, and especially for an institutional archive like our College Archives, they are also created in accordance with the policies, social norms, and leadership preferences of a given moment. Today our archivists and special collections librarians beseech the St. Olaf community to give them anything and everything, and are working closely with Dr. Janak and I to create this LGBTQ Oral History collection, but their curation is fairly recent in the life of the archives.

Another force we have to consider, too, is the unwillingness of LGBTQ+ students to have their identities or experiences preserved in archives. A number of the people we’ve interviewed for our project were not “out” as students. Even those who were self-aware as students understood that their sexuality or gender identity was not welcome at St. Olaf when they were students in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, even 90s. They observed harassment of gender non-conforming peers, read cruel anti-homosexual diatribes in campus publications, or their “out” friends left the school for less conservative college communities. Why, then, would they leave evidence of their own non-conformity in the college archives? For most of St. Olaf’s history, though students may have felt nurtured academically, may have made close friends who accepted them, may have even found community on campus, there was no affirmation from the college of LGBTQ+ students. The silence in the archives, then, is one that can only be rectified through careful, deliberate action. That’s what we’re doing. Not only will this work be included in the official history of St. Olaf, but the stories of LGBTQ+ Oles will forever be part of the institutional and archival memory of the college.  

“The silence in the archives can only be rectified through careful, deliberate action. That’s what we’re doing. Not only will this work be included in the official history of St. Olaf, but the stories of LGBTQ+ Oles will forever be part of the institutional and archival memory of the college.”

— Assistant Professor of History Averill Earls

Janak: Tracing the experiences of marginalized populations is important in and of itself because it gives a more holistic picture of St. Olaf. If these histories continue to be hidden or underground, we run the risk of erasing important moments in the institution’s life. Moreover, what I have found from the interviews and research we have done is that these histories are far more messy and complicated than it may seem on the surface. Recent self-reported data claims that over one-third of St. Olaf’s student population identifies as LGBTQ+. We know self-reported data, especially in regards to targeted populations, are low-ball numbers. St. Olaf of today, even with its deep contradictions and complexities, is a more welcoming place for LGBTQ+ people than it was in the 1990s or even the 2010s. And yet, if we focus on present histories, we miss the conflict, disagreement, violence, and organizing that created the space for this new reality. Without more complex histories that include a discussion of the deep culture of homophobia, racism, white supremacy, and settler colonialism, we mischaracterize the history of the institution and people’s varied experiences within it. 

If someone wants to share their experience or story with you but remain anonymous in the College Archives record, is that possible?
Earls: Absolutely. Our participants have control over if the interview they give is archived at all, if they want to put an embargo on it, if they want to anonymize it, or if they want to redact parts of it. This is an important part of our approach to queer oral history.

What do you hope the broader St. Olaf community takes away from this project?
Janak: I hope that the community can learn a bit more about some undertold stories within the history of St. Olaf. I also hope that our work contextualizes how we got to where we are and the struggles that made that possible. As with most things, young people and students, in particular, have been instrumental in ushering in new eras for storied institutions and have consistently challenged the status quo, not only out of rejection of it but out of a deep love and belief in the promise of St. Olaf. And lastly, I hope this critical project makes clear the work that is still needed for our institution to fulfill its mission “to excel in the liberal arts, examine faith and values, and explore meaningful vocation in an inclusive, globally engaged community nourished by Lutheran tradition.” Recent student uprisings around the country and world have made it clear that educational institutions, including St. Olaf, must reckon with their complicity in structural oppression and make good on their promises to be inclusive and globally engaged. We cannot turn away from oppression, and instead need to lean into the example of students who have consistently fought for a better tomorrow. 

Are there ways that you are hoping for alumni or the broader community to contribute to your work/chapter?
Earls: If there are any LGBTQ+ Oles out there willing to share their stories, we’d love to hear from you! You can email earls1@stolaf.edu and/or janak1@stolaf.edu. While we’re looking for folks who were students in the 1950s through the early 2000s, we’d also welcome more recent LGBTQ+ alumni. We’re interested in your time as a student, of course, as well as your life since!

Janak: We are especially interested in hearing from alumni (faculty, students, and staff) who were part of the St. Olaf community in the 1950s-early 1980s! Even if folks were not “out” during their time at St. Olaf, we are still interested in their stories.