Description

Hooper Schultz is an oral historian, PhD candidate and instructor in History at UNC – Chapel Hill. He previously worked for the Southern Oral History Program at the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC. His work is focused on student gay rights activism on college campuses in the U.S. South during the 1970’s. He is particularly interested in the relationships between students and their college towns, and how we can learn and benefit as a society from the brave (and too-often unheard) voices that came before us. 

In this conversation Hooper shares with us, for what was his first time in a publicly-recorded format, his story of coming out as gay as an undergrad at UNC. Hooper courageously tells his story as well as his life journey since then and how all of his education and work is in service of others who might be going through a similar struggle that he experienced. 

Other areas we cover in this conversation:

• Why Hooper has focused on the South in his research 
• Understanding why the gay activism in the 70’s is valuable to the current moment 
• Hooper’s internal struggles around coming out as gay to his family and friends 
• Hooper’s mission/purpose behind his years of work and research
• Hooper’s important advice to anyone else out there who might be struggling with sexuality 

Plugs

1. Southern Oral History Program at UNC Chapel Hill
2. Hooper's history department at UNC Chapel Hill
3. Queerolina - Experiences of Place and Space Through Oral Histories, an exhibit highlighting the lived experiences of UNC-Chapel Hill students who identify as LGBTQIA+.
4. Men like That by John Howard
5. Fiction author Randall Kenan

You can contact Hooper at hooper@unc.edu