Thursday, October 29, 2009

LEATHER ARCHIVES & MUSEUM NEWS



Dr. Jennifer Tyburczy, Ph.D., Joins the Leather Archives & Museum as Director of Programming

Chicago, IL - October 22, 2009 - Dr. Jennifer Tyburczy joins the Leather Archives & Museum [LA&M] staff shortly after successfully earning her Ph.D. from Northwestern University's Department of Performance Studies where she specialized in gender and sexuality studies.

At the LA&M, Tyburczy continues to pursue her theoretical scholarship while at the same time mobilizing educational programming that appeals to leather/kink/fetish communities as well as scholars and researchers. She ultimately wants to continue the LA&M's current function as a community center and establish the LA&M as the premier institute for conducting research on alternative sexuality in the United States.

"We're excited to have Dr. Tyburczy on board. Her experience and expertise will heighten the quality of educational programming and research opportunities the Leather Archives strives to bring its patrons" said Executive Director Rick Storer.

Tyburczy's articles on sexuality, visual culture, and the exhibition of sexual artifacts in museums have appeared in numerous journals, encyclopedias, and newsletters. She joins the LA&M staff as a teacher with over eight years of experience in the university classroom where she has taught classes as diverse as "Gender and Performance," "Sexuality and Visual Culture," and "Exhibiting Sexualities."

Tyburczy's dissertation work, entitled, "Exhibiting Sexualities: Pleasure, Power, and Performance in Museums," is the first full-length investigation of a group of museums in the Americas dedicated to the exhibition of sexuality. It describes how museums adopt and adapt certain themes, contexts, and display technologies to exhibit sexuality for diverse museum audiences.

About the LA&M : The Leather Archives & Museum is a unique museum, library and archives with collections centered on leather, fetishism and sadomasochism. For more information, please visit http://www.leatherarchives.org

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