LISA VECOLI
Lisa Vecoli curates The Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies at the University of Minnesota Libraries, an archive of organizational records, personal papers, print material, films and other items that tell the story of our existence. Vecoli began as a Community Advisory Board member, and has been with it for the past 15 years, the last three as the archive´s only staff member. In her time as curator, Vecoli has won grants that make the archive more accessible and diverse, allowing her to digitize important collections and include information about POC, transgender and bisexual communities in the archive´s history exhibit. Vecoli says she loves “seeing young researchers find themselves in the archive. Connecting young researchers to the past is empowering for them and exhilarating for me. Sometimes they get angry about how people have been treated, but they also begin to see how individuals have fought to bring about the acceptance and rights we have today-sometimes with big gestures, sometimes by just living their lives with integrity. It gives them a deeper understanding, not only about where we have been, but also about where we are going and what role they can play in moving us all forward. They realize it hasn´t always been like this-and that how it will be in the future is up to them.” -GH
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