2027 Salty-Dykes-and-Making-Waves

Salty Dykes and Making Waves

Histories of Queer Communities in Nova Scotia, 1960-1996

2027 Dissertation by JessWilton

This dissertation explores several social and cultural histories of queer communities in Nova Scotia between 1969 and 1996 through regional, emotional, and social constructionist perspectives. It argues that Nova Scotia’s queer communities were constantly making and remaking themselves through queer socialization practices and activist projects during this time, and that these processes were both imbued with emotions and shaped by regional and cultural forces.

Using an assemblage of archival materials—including newsprint, memory and history projects, oral histories, ephemera, wearables, music, and material objects—each chapter focuses on one slice of Nova Scotia queer communities, or a common practice. This includes histories of queer bar life, lesbian feminist community and pedagogy, queer erotic practices, queer Black and Indigenous communities, and protest. The ephemeral materials and memory-making projects created (and kept) by these communities illuminate the emotional and embodied experiences of queer Nova Scotians amidst these changes.

Together, these histories illustrate how these communities navigated tensions, practiced exclusion, and responded to diverging community needs that were shaped by local understandings of race, gender, and geography at the local level.

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