Library of Congress to Award Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity to Historian of LGBTQ+ Life George Chauncey
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today that historian George Chauncey will receive the 2022 John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity. Chauncey is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University, a position he has held since 2017, and he directs the Columbia Research Institute on the Global History of Sexualities.
“Professor Chauncey’s trailblazing career gave us all better insight into, and understanding of, the LGBTQ+ community and history. His work that helped transform our nation’s attitudes and laws, epitomizes the Kluge Center’s mission to support research at the intersection of the humanities and public policy,” Hayden said. “He was the perfect choice to receive the 2022 Kluge Prize.”
Chauncey is the first scholar in LGBTQ+ studies to receive the prize. He is known for his pioneering 1994 history “Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940,” his 2004 book “Why Marriage? The History Shaping Today’s Debate over Gay Equality,” and his testimony and other work as an expert witness in more than 30 court cases related to LGBTQ+ rights. These include such landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases as Romer v. Evans (1996), Lawrence v. Texas (2003), and the marriage equality cases United States v. Windsor (2013) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).
Past Kluge Prize winner and Harvard historian Drew Gilpin Faust said Chauncey “has entirely revised our understanding of LGBTQ history in the United States and in so doing has established it as one of the most vibrant fields of current historical inquiry. Through his testimony in numerous court cases, he has brought the meaning of his work into the public sphere and has contributed in powerful ways to the establishment of marriage equality.”
Faust also noted that Chauncey’s “generous mentorship of students and younger colleagues represents a signal contribution in and of itself.”
“Gay New York,” released in 1994 during the 25th anniversary of the LGBTQ+ rights protests at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, looks at the gay community in New York City before World War II, utilizing newspapers, police records, oral histories, diaries, and other primary sources to show that there was a much more vibrant and visible gay world than previously believed and to argue that there was a permeable boundary between straight and gay behavior, especially among working-class men. “Gay New York” won numerous prizes for its scholarship including the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize from the Organization of American Historians, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History, and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men’s Studies.
“Why Marriage?” draws on Chauncey’s extensive research prepared for court cases in which he provided expert testimony. It traces the history of both gay and anti-gay activism and discusses the origins of the modern struggle for gay marriage.
Legal historian Sarah Barringer Gordon said Chauncey’s “work gave rise to an entire new field…and has expanded into arenas that affect daily life, such as marriage equality.”
Chauncey has edited several books and journal issues, published numerous academic articles, and written for news outlets including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker and The Village Voice.
Historian Martha Jones praised Chauncey, calling him “a path-breaking, field-defining historian of LGBTIA Americans,” adding that “he is a publicly and politically engaged intellectual whose work in connection with the long course of marriage equality litigation was decisive.”
Chauncey received a Bachelor of Arts and a doctorate from Yale University. He was the Samuel Knight Professor of History & American Studies at Yale from 2006 to 2017, and held posts as chair of the History Department, chair of the Committee for LGBT Studies, and director of graduate studies and undergraduate studies for the American Studies program. He was awarded Yale’s teaching prize for his lecture course on U.S. Lesbian and Gay History, which more than 300 students took the final time he taught it. Chauncey taught at the University of Chicago from 1991 through 2006. He is married to Ronald Gregg, a film historian and director of the master’s program in Film and Media Studies at Columbia University.
Chauncey has been an elected member of the New York Academy of History since 2007 and a member of the Society of American Historians since 2005.
“I am deeply honored to receive the Kluge Prize,” Chauncey said, “and grateful that the Library of Congress has recognized the importance and vibrancy of the field of LGBTQ history.”
The Library will collaborate with Chauncey to create programming to bring his expertise on LGBTQ+ history to the public and policymakers in an accessible, engaging way.
About the Kluge Prize
The Kluge Prize recognizes individuals whose outstanding scholarship in the humanities and social sciences has shaped public affairs and civil society. Awarded to a scholar every two years, the international prize highlights the value of researchers who communicate beyond the scholarly community and have had a major impact on social and political issues. The prize comes with a $500,000 award. Additional funds from the Library’s Kluge endowment, which funds the award, are being invested in Kluge Center programming.
George Chauncey joins a prestigious group of past prize winners that includes philosopher Jürgen Habermas, former president of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and scholar of African American history John Hope Franklin, among others.
Danielle Allen, a renowned scholar of justice, citizenship, and democracy, was the 2020 winner of the Kluge Prize. As prize recipient, she held a series of events with the Library of Congress titled “Our Common Purpose,” which explored American civic life and how it might be strengthened. Historian and former Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust won the 2018 prize and participated in a conversation with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on women in leadership.
Hayden selected Chauncey from a short list of finalists following a request for nominations from scholars and leaders all over the world and a three-stage review process by experts inside and outside the Library.
The Kluge Prize is administered by the Kluge Center in the Library of Congress. The Kluge Center's mission, as established in 2000, is to "invigorate the connection between thought and action," bridging the gap between scholarship and policymaking.
To that end, the Kluge Center brings some of the world's great thinkers to the Library to make use of the Library collections and engage in conversations addressing the challenges facing democracies in the 21st century. For more information visit loc.gov/kluge.
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.
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Media Contacts: Bill Ryan, wryan@loc.gov | Brett Zongker, bzongker@loc.gov
Website: John W. Kluge Center loc.gov/kluge
PR 22-053
06/22/2022
ISSN 0731-3527