Gender & Attraction Initiatives

Grant Funding

Through a committee of staff, administrators, and faculty, Gender & Attraction Initiatives oversees two funds for students doing research & artistic projects in an area related to the history, experiences, or accomplishments of Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, and/or Queer (LGBTQ+) people. 

What is the Cemelli LGBTQ+ Research Grant?
This grant provides up to $750 to support a research project in an area related to the history, experiences, or accomplishments of Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, and/or Queer (LGBTQ+) people. The award could be used for travel to research sites, conference expenses, acquisition of reference sources, etc. This project requires a Faculty Advisor for accountability and must be completed and presented during the summer, fall, winter, and/or spring term of the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Who was Andy Cemelli?
In 1996, a fund was initiated honoring two Oberlin LGBTQ+ Lambda Alumni Association Steering Committee members and co-founders who were lost to complications from AIDS-related illnesses. The fund produces an annual financial award for a student to complete work related to the LGBTQ+ community.

This prize is named after Andrew Cemelli '85. Andrew enrolled with the intention of pursuing a biology major with an interest in voice. By the time he graduated, he had completely changed his focus and graduated with a BA in Theatre. Theatre was not his only interest at Oberlin; while here, Andy developed interests in photography, knitting, and dance. He was an active member of Keep Co-op and was perhaps most famous in his time here for his sparring with former President Starr. He was very active in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) issues, including the data project where he attempted to make a database with LGB interests so that students could seek each other out for support and discussion. After graduation, he started Concepts and Keystrokes (a computing company) with his mother, Ginger Cemelli. He continued to pursue his diverse interests, including pizza eating, scuba diving, and singing in the Pro Art Chorale in Paramus, NJ. He was very active in the Oberlin LGB alumni group that became the Lambda Alumni Association. He worked at Novell/WordPerfect until he was forced to leave on disability in November 1995. Andrew Cemelli died on February 5, 1996, of complications related to AIDS. He is remembered by his friends as being a very persuasive and proactive person. The Cemelli LGBTQ+ Research Grant and the work for which the prize is awarded stands as a testimony to Andrew, to his place in the Oberlin community, and to the place of all queer and trans students at Oberlin.

Presentation Requirement
The Cemelli LGBTQ+ Research Grant recipient will be required to present their research (written article, performance, presentation, etc.) by May 9, 2025. Failure to do so will result in the student losing their grant.

Financial Aid Notice
This prize is funded by the Cemelli-Robertson Lambda Educational Endowed Fund and therefore must be counted towards your financial aid package. If you have any questions about how this may affect your financial aid package, please contact the Financial Aid Office at financial.aid@oberlin.edu.

The application, in its completion, is due by midnight on Friday, March 15th. If you have any questions, please contact Gender & Attraction Initiatives at gai@oberlin.edu.

Apply Here!

 

Previous Recipients 

  • 2024 - Annabel Sexton-Daldry; “Collecting & Filming the Oral Histories of Life at 675 Hudson Street.”

  • 2011 - Taylor Johnson ’13; STUDS, DOMS, AND A.G.S: (MIS)REPRESENTATION OF BLACK FEMALE MASCULINITY IN THE QUEER COMMUNITY

  • 2011 – Mandy Hogan ’14, Chinwe Okona ’13, Julie Christensen ’13; form an Oberlin Queer Wellness Coalition

  • 2010 - Jonathan Doucette '11, presented “Negotiating Tolerance,” a project he will be doing this summer in Sweden and Amsterdam

  • 2010 - Francesca Krihely '10, who presented “Gentrification & LGBTQ Communities,” which examines the effects of gentrification on LGBTQ communities, particularly the displacement of queer people of color in urban spaces

  • 2009 - Andrew Spencer '09; AIDS Activism, Education, and Art: The grant allowed me to attend a conference on art and AIDS in New York City and conduct research at the New York Public Library.

  • 2009 - Emma Anderson '09 The project I have completed with help from the Cemelli grant is my honors thesis in Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, entitled “Beyond Survival: Violence, Performance and Narrative in Queer Young Lives.”

  • 2009 - Rufus Nicoll ’09 Project: “The Truth About Boarding Schools: Sexuality and Liberal Multiculturalism with the Lights On”

  • 2007 - Kantara Souffrant ‘08; her artistic project and its focus on her negotiations of identity as a person of Haitian ancestry living in the United States. Her life, she elaborates, “has been spent at a junction–occupying a dual reality of Haiti’s legacy as the first free Black republic, full of culture, tradition, and strength, and its present reality which is gripped by images of poverty, destitution, and Black people fighting each other in the sake of survival.”

  • 2007 - Amy Caes ‘08; , Caes discussed their research on transgender artists’ selfrepresentations and the images on display as examples. Their project considered how these images relate to gender identity formations and the ways in which understandings of gender shape artists’ patterns of representation.

  • 2002 - Jessica Rosenberg '03, for her project "Speak-truth.com"

  • 2002 - Yvonne Etaghene '02, whose project is titled, "The Resistance Black Dykes Manifest Through Performance Poetry and the Written Word."

  • 1999 - Matthew Hayden ’94; Creating a resource list and training materials for the Lorain County Rape Crisis Service dealing with LGBT issues and an academic paper on the subject.

  • 1999 - Joey Plaster ’01; Oral interviews with alumni regarding the history of sexual identity and culture at Oberlin.

  • 1999 - Khary Polk ’02; Tulane University archives - Forms of homosexuality with Slave Relations (master/slave, slave/slave, consensual, homoerotic games, prostitution and rape)

  • 1998 - Jesse Ehrensaft-Hawley ’98; “Historical, socio-political, literary and cinematic representations of transgender people of African descent in New York City Since 1920”

  • 1998 - Mary Margaret Towey ’00; “ Transsexual Odyssey 4 Case Studies”

  • 1996 - Nicole Hurt ’98; “Bad Barracks Beulahs to Blues Divas: A Partial History of Same-sex Love Among Black Women in the United States”

  • 1996 - Andrew W. A. LaVallee ’98; “Coalition Building within the Academy: Relating/Rethinking Queer and Ethnic Studies”

  • 1995 - Deborah Cane ’96; “The Beginnings of Gay Activism at Oberlin College 1968-1984”

What is the Robertson LGBTQ+ Arts Grant?
This grant provides up to $750 to support an art project in an area related to the history, experiences, or accomplishments of Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, and/or Queer (LGBTQ+) people. The award could be used for travel to research sites, conference expenses, acquisition of materials, performance production, etc. This project requires a Faculty Advisor for accountability and must be completed and presented during the summer, fall, winter, and/or spring term of the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Who was Norm Robertson?
In 1996, a fund was initiated honoring two Oberlin LGBTQ+ Lambda Alumni Association Steering Committee members and co-founders who were lost to complications from AIDS-related illnesses. The fund produces an annual financial award for a student to complete work related to the LGBTQ+ community.

This prize is named after Norm Robertson '81. Norm enrolled in Oberlin College in the fall of 1975, intending to be a pre-med major. By the time he graduated in 1981, like many Obies, he had a completely different outlook and graduated as a Religion major with a significant interest in the Conservatory. Although he had studied the violin seriously in high school, he never intended to become a professional violinist. Oberlin introduced him to Early Music for the first time. While a student, he participated in Collegium Musicum and studied baroque violin and viola. When he moved to Chicago after graduation, he was one of the first members of City Musik, a short-lived but distinguished baroque orchestra. His partner also participated and was a well-known keyboard instrumentalist and soloist. Along with City Musik, Robertson played with Jubal’s Lyre, Basically Bach, and Harwood Early Music Ensemble. Oberlin professors who knew Norm well remember him as a talented student and a gentle, generous person. While at college, Norm worked hard and managed to reconcile his sexuality with his deep-felt convictions as a Catholic. After graduation, he put his convictions into practice and worked for several years in a parish in Baton Rouge, LA, as director of Christian education. He was also quite proud of his position as Director of Consignments at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, one of the Mid-West’s finest art auctions. As a resident of Chicago, Norm was very active in the Chicago alumni group and received the Volunteer of the Year award. Norm Robertson died of complications related to AIDS on January 11, 1992. He was remembered by his friends in Fairchild Chapel in a historical performance concert entitled “Bach for AIDS.” The Robertson LGBTQ+ Arts Grant and the work for which the prize is awarded stands as a testimony to Norm, to his place in the Oberlin community, and to the place of all queer and trans students at Oberlin.

Presentation Requirement
The Robertson LGBTQ+ Arts Grant recipient will be required to present their art (written article, performance, presentation, etc.) by May 9, 2025. Failure to do so will result in the student losing their grant.

Financial Aid Notice
This prize is funded by the Cemelli-Robertson Lambda Educational Endowed Fund and therefore must be counted towards your financial aid package. If you have any questions about how this may affect your financial aid package, please contact the Financial Aid Office at financial.aid@oberlin.edu.

The application, in its completion, is due by midnight on Friday, March 15th. If you have any questions, please contact Gender & Attraction Initiatives at gai@oberlin.edu.

Apply Here!

 

Previous Recipients 

  • 2011 – Sarah Schrag, completed an independent study project on the violence at the 2008 Queer Sarajevo Festival.

  • 2009 - Anna Straser '09, the winner of the Norm Robertson Prize, directed “Speech & Debate,” Stephen Karam's dark comedy, through the Oberlin Student Theater Association.

  • 2007 – Jamie Harrow ‘07; work on interlocking systems of oppression. Harrow produced a comic book, Stuff That’s (not) Invisible, that considers the ways in which different kinds of privilege and oppression interact. Ableism, classism, homophobia, racism, religious oppression, sizeism, and transphobia are just some of the isms that Harrow encourages us to consider

  • 2003- Abby Farragher ’03; The changing views of lesbian identity from 1900-to the present. From the scientific/ psychological description of lesbianism as a disease, to the changing perception of lesbians in the media.

  • 2003- Sarah Saunders ’03; Transgender rights in the American prison system. A transgender (MTF) person was incarcerated as a result of protesting the School of Americas, and Sarah organized to make sure she was given the proper medication to continue hormone therapy.

  • 2002 - Christie Sprowles '03, for "The Drag Kings."

  • 1997- Robert G Colby ’96, honorable mention; “The Angels of Sodom: Gustave Moreau, Homosexuality and the Culture of A Rebours”

  • 1997- Stephanie Cohen ’97, honorable mention; “Bodies Gone Public: Passing Exposure Stories and the Visualization of Heteronormativity”

  • 1997- David Berman ‘97; “For Better or Worse: The Gay Movement and the Problem of Gay Marriage”