Leather Bound Stories in Archives

Hannah Dickson (she/they) is a Queer woman, curator, and researcher living and working in tkaronto/toronto. She has a BA in Art History and Gender Studies from Carleton University and an MA in Contemporary Art, Design, and New Media Art Histories from OCAD University. During her time at OCAD, her research focused on the queerness of contemporary burlesque and the concept of the feminist gaze. Since then, her research has evolved to include high femme aesthetics, femmes and kink, and the pairing of contemporary art with archival material to bridge the gaps within archives.

Patrizia Gentile is Professor in the Human Rights & Social Justice and the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation at Carleton University. Her monograph Queen of the Maple Leaf: Beauty Contests and Settle Femininity (UBC Press, 2020) was nominated for the best book prize by the Canadian Historical Association in 2022. She is co-author with Gary Kinsman of the Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation (UBC Press, 2010) and has co-edited two anthologies on sexuality, gender, and embodiment. She is a cis-gendered/queer settler living on unceded Algonquin territories.

Mel Leverich (they/them) is the Archivist & Collections Librarian for the Leather Archives & Museum, an international repository of kink, leather, and fetish community history that was founded in Chicago in 1991. Mel studied Classics and Cultural Studies at the Univeristy of Utah and has a Masters of Archival Studies from the University of British Columbia.

Isabelle Cabrera Aragon (she/they) is a volunteer at The ArQuives in the curatorial committee. She has a BFA from the Art History and Studio Art program at Concordia University. Her focus has been in community projects and the role of institutions in supporting cultural heritage.