New Brunswick #Queer#Histories Matter is a #SSHRC and #NBIF funded project that seeks to work with #2LGBTQ+ youth and pre-service teachers to disrupt the erasure of queer, trans, and non-binary people and communities’ histories and experiences from New Brunswick Social Studies classrooms. The term #2LGBTQ+ refers to people who are Two Spirit, #Lesbian, #Gay, #Bisexual, #Transgender, and/or #Queer, and the ‘plus’ refers to people whose gender identities and sexualities are not included in the identities of are Two Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and/or Queer.
By engaging young people and pre-service #teachers in media production, including #stencil making, #zine production, and #cellphilming (or #cellphone + filmmaking), we want to tell some of the experiences and stories that have been left out of Social Studies classrooms and curricula. We also want to work together to share and archive these resources in a collaborative way, through social media and a dedicated web presence. We also recognize that beyond the erasure of 2LGBTQ+ histories, there are many other erasures in #NewBrunswick’s Social Studies classroom and curricula, including the experiences of New Brunswick’s Black, Indigenous, and people of color’s community histories and experiences.
Throughout the New Brunswick Queer Histories Matter project, we seek to queer the teaching of social studies by questioning the existing curricula and working against heteronormativity, transphobia, white supremacy and settler colonialism. We also want to work with teachers and students to continue to make media, to build on our resources, and to create a New Brunswick Social Studies classroom that is justice oriented, and promotes complexity, rather than erasing differences to further entrench homophobia, transphobia, settler colonialism, nationalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. In this short documentary, we share the importance of incorporating queer histories into the elementary classroom.