For our archival project, we chose to examine past issues of Agnes Scott College’s literary magazine, Aurora (from 2000 to the current 2010 issue) in order to glean a better understanding of what (if any) visibility queer issues have been given, and how this attention has shifted in the past decade. We wanted to explore a less structured and political facet of ASC’s many possible avenues of historic inquiry, and instead focus on what can be learned via what the students were doing creatively. We recognize that creative arts reflect not only the personal and interpersonal developments of the individual, but are also telling of overall attitudes during a given time period. Although not meant to be representative of Agnes Scott College as an institution nor of Aurora as a publication, we have selected samples of poetry, prose, and photography that we think in some way highlight issues that we've been discussing in our queer theory class this semester. The two main themes we uncovered dealt with the fluidity of gender and sexuality, including what qualifies as womanhood (Amber Raley’s “On Being a (Wo)Man”), gender as a social construction (Laura McKelvey’s “It’s A Girl!”), responses/reactions to the male gaze (Nicolette Morgan’s “Untitled), and queer desire (Bethany Sullivan's "Little Happens"). Enjoy!
2000: "On Being a (Wo)Man" by Amber Raley
2001: "America: Recipe for Sweet Land of Liberty Casserole" by Tonysha D. Johnson
2002: "Twin" by Yaisha Caron-Harding
2003: For reasons unbeknownst to your humble timeliners, Aurora was not published in 2003.
2004: "Untitled" by Nicolette Morgan
2005: "It's A Girl!" by Laura McKelvey
2006: "World according to Jung" by Lejla Marijam
2007: "Fourth Coffee" by Kristin Hall page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4
2008: "Seeds" by Kimberly Crew page 1, page 2
2009: "Snake" by Katy Flinn
2010: "Little Happens" by Bethany Sullivan
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