Eric W. Denby

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign with a focus on 20th century LGBTQ Youth rights.

I am interested in how LGBTQ youth have constructed identities and navigated queer spaces in response to oppression, repression, and marginalization, and the acts of resistance that they actively engaged in, both individually and collectively.  My upcoming dissertation - "All We Want to Do is Love:  LGBT Youth Organizing and Sexual Self Determination in the United States, 1965-1995" - will explore the activism and resistance of LGBTQ high school students during the post-World War II period, with an emphasis on the various ways they were excluded from social, cultural, and political spaces.

My masters thesis (completed in May of 2015 at Western Michigan University) is titled "Fighting for Inclusion: The Origins of Gay Liberation at the University of Michigan." I explore the ways in which a gay and lesbian community sought to create institutional acceptance in the early 1970s.

Prior to pursuing my college education, I held a variety of positions in marketing, communications, public relations, and sales. The majority of my career was spent in the music industry, mainly as an in-house talent buyer for national and regional entertainment.