BOYD, Nan Alamilla

PERSONAL:

Female. Education: University of California, B.A., 1986; M.A., 1989; Brown University, Ph.D., 1995.

ADDRESSES:

Office—1801 E. Colati Ave., 51 Rachel Carson Hall, Rohnert Park, CA 94928. E-mail—nan.alamilla.boyd@sonoma.edu.

CAREER:

Writer. University of Colorado, Boulder, assistant professor of women's studies, 1999-2003; Sonoma State University, assistant professor, 2003—.

WRITINGS:

Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965, University of California Press (Berkley, CA), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Nan Alamilla Boyd is a professor of women's and gender studies. Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965 explores the history of gay men and women in San Francisco from 1900-1965. Boyd uses oral interviews, police and court records, tourist information, and manuscript collections to weave together the history of gay and lesbian culutre in San Francisco. Wide-Open Town is titled as such because San Francisco has a known reputation of a town where "anything goes." Critics have applauded Wide-Open Town as being surprizingly the first academic, comprehensive history of gay and lesbian activity in San Francisco. A reviewer for Publisher's Weekly stated, "Boyd has a keen ear for distinctive details, and it is this … that drives this welcome study."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, May 1, 2003, Richard J. Violette, review of Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965, pp. 140-141.

Publishers Weekly, May 19, 2003, review of Wide-Open Town, pp. 65-66.

ONLINE

Gay Today,http://www.gaytoday.com/ (October 23, 2003), review of Wide-Open Town. *