Cornell University Library has awarded Phil Zwickler Memorial Research Grants to six researchers who will use its Human Sexuality Collection as a resource for scholarly projects. The collection records and preserves materials documenting the cultural and political aspects of human sexuality.

This year's projects are:

• Brian Distelberg, Yale University, "Minority Activists, the Mass Media, and the Politics of Anti-Defamation, 1940s-1990s";
• Sean Edgecomb, Tufts University, "'Christopher Street After Dark': Gay Theatre Culture in Print, 1970-80";
• Christina Hanhardt, University of Maryland, "'Safe Space': The Sexual and City Politics of Violence";
• Abram Lewis, University of Minnesota, "'A Certain Acceptable Way of Life': Locating Gender Minority Politics in Post-Stonewall LGBT Activist History";
• Tim Retzloff, Yale University, "Suburb, City and the Changing Bounds of Lesbian and Gay Life in Metropolitan Detroit, 1945-85"; and
• Nathan Andrew Wilson, York University, "Hitler, Homosexuality and the Holocaust -- The Politics of Memory in West Germany and the United States."

"Giving these awards is incredibly rewarding, because our whole purpose is to make more research on sexuality possible for more people," said Brenda Marston, curator of the Human Sexuality Collection. "We choose people who can tell fascinating stories and make persuasive cases through our materials. All of the grant recipients show a desire to converse about their research, to get it out there, to challenge and expand ways we think about sexuality."

Researchers receive funds for expenses incurred when they conduct research in the collection, housed in the library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. The Zwickler grant program has been active since 2002; this year, the library received almost twice as many applications as in past years.

"These researchers have started thought-provoking work, rethinking gender and transgender politics and putting LGBT history in the broad contexts of the histories of race, gender and religion," said Ileen Devault, professor of labor history in the ILR School. Devault and Marston reviewed the applications and chose the grant winners.

The Phil Zwickler Charitable and Memorial Foundation funds the grant program. It honors filmmaker and journalist Phil Zwickler, who died at age 36 after documenting the AIDS crisis and the struggle for lesbian and gay rights.

"The ultimate purpose of the Human Sexuality Collection – and really, all of our library collections – is to increase what people are able to learn through the materials we acquire and preserve," said Anne Kenney, the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian. "The library is so pleased to be able to support such a huge variety of serious research projects in human sexuality, especially at a time when budgets are tighter than ever. We're glad to see our collections have such a positive impact."