SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Lawrence Technological University Assistant Professor Yidong “Steven” Wang, PhD, has received the Spencer Research Library Travel Award from the University of Kansas in support of his project, “Documenting Queer Life in the American Heartland: Liberty Press, a Kansas Magazine.”
Wang, an assistant professor of critical media studies in LTU’s College of Arts and Sciences, studies the role of media in shaping culture, community networks, and public life. His award-winning project uses archival materials connected to Liberty Press, the longest-running gay and lesbian publication in Kansas, to examine how local media helped communities express identity, build connection, and document everyday experience in the American heartland.
Rather than centering queer history only in large coastal cities, Wang’s work asks readers to look closely at the places where visibility has often been limited, community ties have been especially meaningful, and cultural life has taken forms that are easy to overlook. The project offers a more nuanced account of belonging, geography, and social change.
“I wasn’t expecting this many queer encounters when moving to Kansas. It was heartwarming to see friends of Dorothy still roving the heartland despite the hostile policies created to chase them away,” Wang said.
Wang also recently presented related work at the Mundane Queer History Conference in Bergen, Norway, a gathering of scholars focused on histories of gender and sexual nonconformity in non-metropolitan areas, everyday life, passing codes, and other understudied contexts.
For more information about the Spencer Award, visit spencer.lib.ku.edu/using-the-library/travel-awards.
Lawrence Technological University is one of only 13 independent, technological, comprehensive doctoral universities in the United States. Located in Southfield, Mich., LTU was founded in 1932, and offers more than 100 programs through its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business and Information Technology, Engineering, and Health Sciences, as well as Specs@LTU, which offers communication training programs of the former Specs Howard School, and LTU’s growing Center for Professional Development. Year after year, LTU is listed as a “Best Midwest” university by The Princeton Review and in the “Regional Universities Midwest” ranking list by the U.S. News and World Report. Students benefit from small class sizes and a real-world, hands-on, “Theory and Practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on LTU’s 107-acre campus include more than 60 student organizations and NAIA varsity sports.