Guide to the Christina Crosby papers, 1949–2023

John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148
Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Published in 2023

Collection Overview

Title:	Christina Crosby papers
Date range:	1949-2023
Creator:	Crosby, Christina
Extent:	26.5 linear feet
Abstract:	This collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Christina Crosby, lesbian and feminist scholar, social justice activist, and co-founder of Sojourner House – a non-profit dedicated to supporting those affected by domestic and sexual violence in Rhode Island. Crosby worked as a Professor in the English Department and a Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University. Her scholarship focused on women in 19th-century British literature but turned toward disability studies after a near-fatal bicycle accident in 2003. In 2016, Crosby published "A Body Undone: Living on After Great Pain" documenting this experience. The collection documents Crosby's personal life, academic career, research, and writing, and includes photographs, correspondence, syllabi, handwritten notes, research articles, and writing drafts. The collection spans from 1949 to 2023.
Repository:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts
Collection number:	MS.2023.005

Scope & content

This collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Christina Crosby, lesbian and feminist scholar, social justice activist, and co-founder of Sojourner House – a non-profit dedicated to supporting those affected by domestic and sexual violence in Rhode Islanda queer feminist who was committed to social justice and sexual liberation. Crosby worked as a Professor in the English Department and a Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University. Her scholarship focused on women in 19th-century British literature but turned toward disability studies after a near fatal bicycle accident in 2003. In 2016, Crosby published A Body Undone: Living on After Great Pain documenting this experience. The collection documents Crosby's personal life, academic career, research, and writing, and includes photographs, correspondence, syllabi, handwritten notes, research articles, and writing drafts. The collection spans from 1949 to 2023.s. The collection spans from 1949 to 2023 and is arranged into 12 series.

Series 1, PERSONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, 1949-2021, contains personal items from throughout Crosby's life including awards, diaries, medical records and invoices, and photographs. Of particular note are medical adaptation records documenting the modifications made to Crosby's home, office, and life to accommodate her needs after the 2003 accident which left Crosby paralyzed from a spinal cord injury; photographs of "friends and lovers;" and the dog collar of Crosby's beloved dog, Babe. Note that original folder titles are written in quotations. The processor created all other folder titles. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.

Series 2, CORRESPONDENCE, 1960-2022, contains personal correspondence from various senders including Janet Jakobsen, Maggie Nelson, Teresa Rankin, and Elizabeth Weed. Correspondence marked "post accident" was originally indicated as such. Most, but not all of that correspondence relates directly to the accident. Note that original folder titles are written in quotations. The processor created all other folder titles. Professional correspondence can be found throughout the collection. This series is arranged chronologically and then alphabetically by the sender's last name.

Series 3, EDUCATION AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT, 1958-1996, contains items related to Crosby's education including notebooks, handwritten notes, Crosby's student papers, and report cards from Huntingdon High School, Swarthmore College, and Brown University. Note that original folder titles are written in quotations. The processor created all other folder titles. This series is arranged alphabetically by name of institution then by record type.

Series 4, CONFERENCES, 1986-2017, contains papers, handwritten notes, correspondence, and materials for several conferences attended by Crosby. Conferences of note include the 11th Annual Feminist Theory Workshop and Dignity from the Margins. This series is arranged alphabetically by conference title.

Series 5, WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATIVE, 1982-2015, contains files from Crosby's time as a Professor in the English Department at Wesleyan University, including correspondence, materials and notes for faculty seminars, and preliminary course drafts and research regarding "Women's Studies 101." Of particular note are handwritten notes, correspondence, and meeting materials pertaining to Corsby's development of the Women's Studies major, including steering committee materials. Note that original folder titles are written in quotations. The processor created all other folder titles. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.

Series 6, TEACHING, 1983-2020, includes handwritten lecture notes, syllabi, and course evaluations for courses taught by Crosby. Course titles include "Critical Issues in Contemporary Society," "Feminist Theory," "History of the British Novel," "Introduction to Critical Theory," "Reading the Victorians," and "Women's studies." Note that original folder titles are written in quotations. The processor created all other folder titles. This series is arranged alphabetically by course and then chronologically.

Series 7, WRITINGS BY CROSBY, 1973-2020, includes correspondence, flyers, reviews, and contracts related to Crosby's published books, as well as essays and talks written by Crosby. Titles include A Body Undone, "Skin, Touching, Skin in Pandemic Times," and "Woman as the Wild Card: Deconstruction and the Feminist Literary Critic." This series is arranged alphabetically by writing format then by title.

Series 8, WRITINGS BY OTHERS, 1977-2023, includes offprints, correspondence and annotated drafts by other scholars. Scholars include Laura Berry, Janet Jakobsen, Maggie Nelson, Ellen Rooney, Naomi Schor, Gayatri Spivak, and Elizabeth Weed. This series is arranged alphabetically by author's last name then by title.

Series 9, RESEARCH, 1980-2018, includes notecards, annotated readings and handwritten notes about various people and topics. This series is arranged into 2 subseries.

Series 9, subseries 1, RESEARCH BY NAME, 1980-2000, includes handwritten and typed notes, annotated readings, and related correspondence regarding Crosby's research on various scholars and their work. Subjects include Elizabeth Cowie, Charles Dickens, Jane Gallop, and Peggy Kamuf. Note that original folder titles are written in quotations. The processor created all other folder titles. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by the scholar's last name.

Series 9, subseries 2, RESEARCH BY TOPIC, 1984-2018, includes note cards, clippings, annotated readings, handwritten notes and notebooks regarding Croaby's research on various topics. Some topics of note are "Trollope and Realism," "Disability Studies," and "Feminist Theory." Note that original folder titles are written in quotations. The processor created all other folder titles. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by topic.

Series 10, PRINT MATERIAL, 1966-2019, includes books, booklets, pamphlets, newspapers, and flyers. Titles include American Thunder: 30 Photographs of Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, Life Stinks: A Wry look at Hopelessness, Despair, and Disaster, Expression by the Third World's Artist Collective, and "Our American Sisters and the Roots of American Feminist Thought." This series is arranged alphabetically by record type then by title.

Series 11, ELECTRONIC RECORDS, n.d., contains floppy disks, a DVD, and a memorial website. The website was created by Janet Jakobsen and friends of Crosby's, to gather memories of Crosby after her death. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type then by title written on the carrier.

Series 12, CLOTHING, 1995-2003, primarily contains t-shirts from demonstrations, but also includes a hat and jacket. Of particular interest is a bomber-style jacket with "Pembroke Center" embroidered on the back and "Christina" embroidered on the front, as well as various multiple sclerosis bicycle ride t-shirts from events in which Crosby participated. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type then alphabetically by text on the article of clothing.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Butler, Judith, 1956-
• Jakobsen, Janet
• Nelson, Maggie
• Rooney, Ellen
• Weed, Elizabeth

Subject Organizations

• Brown University--Alumni and alumnae
• Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women
• Feminist Theory Archive.

Subject Topics

• Disability studies.
• English literature--19th century.
• Feminist Activism in Rhode Island
• Feminist theory
• Gay activists
• Lesbianism.
• Philosophy, Marxist
• People with Disabilities in Higher Education.
• Quadriplegics.
• Sexual Freedom.
• Sexuality Studies.
• Spinal Cord Injuries
• Women and Gender at Brown University
• Women's Studies

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into 12 series.

Biographical/Historical Note

Christina Crosby was born on September 2, 1953, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Her father, Kenneth Ward Crosby, was a professor of history at Juniata College where her mother, Jane Crosby, taught home economics. She had one older sibling, Jefferson Crosby.

After one year at Juniata College, Crosby completed her undergraduate degree at Swarthmore College where she majored in English. She graduated in 1974.

While attending Swarthmore College, Crosby wrote a column for the student newspaper called "The Feminist Slant" that focused on gender and sexuality topics. She also helped found Swarthmore Gay Liberation, a student organization dedicated to civil rights for queer students.

She pursued her graduate studies at Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, where she earned a doctorate in English in 1982. While at Brown, she was part of The Socialist Feminist Caucus that focused on issues like domestic violence. Crosby and the Caucus established a hotline for survivors of interpersonal violence and in 1976 founded a women's shelter called Sojourner House, one of the first of its kind in the country. During that time she met Elizabeth Weed, then the director of the Sarah Doyle Women's Center at Brown, where the Feminist Caucus held its meetings. They were partners for more than 17 years, continuing their relationship long after Crosby left for Wesleyan in 1982. Crosby's dissertation at Brown became her first book, The Ends of History: Victorians and 'the Woman Question' in 1991, which examined how Victorian literature excluded women from public life, raising questions about how history is narrated.

In 1982 Crosby started teaching at Wesleyan University where she became a tenured professor of English. Although she was hired by Wesleyan’s English department, Crosby became a central part of the university’s Women’s Studies Program, which she helped establish as a major and later helped redesign as Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies (FGSS).

For the next four decades, Crosby was the heart of the program, serving as coordinator and chair of the program in its early years, and as an advocate for the transition to the name FGSS. Crosby helped the program to secure its first autonomous faculty line. In the late 1980s through Fall 2020, Crosby routinely taught half of the program's core classes.

Crosby met Janet Jakobsen who was a visiting scholar at Wesleyan's Center for the Humanities in 1997. Jakobsen was visiting from the University of Arizona and would go on to become the Claire Tow Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. Jakobsen and Crosby became romantic partners and remained so until the end of Crosby's life in 2021.

Among Crosby's students was the writer Maggie Nelson, class of 1994, whom Crosby advised on her honors thesis on confessional poetry. Nelson and Crosby remained friends until the end of Crosby's life, as Crosby did with many of her students to whom she was always dedicated.

On October 1, 2003, Crosby had a near-fatal bicycle accident that left her paralyzed from a spinal cord injury. This accident occurred at a high point in her career. She had been elected by her colleagues to serve as chair of the faculty and was preparing for meetings with Wesleyan trustees, which would have been on October 2, 2003.

Three years after her accident, Crosby introduced a new FGSS course called "Ethics of Embodiment," applying feminist and queer theory to perspectives on how bodies matter. In 2016, Crosby's work in this arena expanded beyond Wesleyan University when she published A Body, Undone: Living on after Great Pain. The book addresses the hardships of her catastrophic injury while resisting a simple narrative about overcoming hardship or becoming wiser because of it. A Body, Undone made a significant impact on disability studies and activism around disability awareness. In the book, Crosby also addresses her relationship with her brother, Jefferson, who also became quadriplegic after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his twenties. Her brother died in 2010 at age 57. It was his death, seven years after her accident, that prompted Crosby to start writing her memoir which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards.

In December 2020, Crosby was hospitalized in Middletown, Connecticut, for pain associated with a bladder infection. It was then that she learned she had advanced pancreatic cancer; she died a few days later, on January 5, 2021 at age 67.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested. Advance notice is required to view any audiovisual media or born-digital records that may exist in this collection. Audiovisual media and born-digital records in this collection may not been reformatted yet. Researchers may request access to copies by contacting the John Hay Library with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. Access to original physical audiovisual or born-digital media is restricted.
Use of the materials:	All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the John Hay Library are requested to complete a Notice of Intent to Publish, prior to reproducing, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Preferred citation:	Christina Crosby, MS.2023.005, Box [#], Folder [#], Pembroke Center Archives, John Hay Library, Brown University.
Contact information:	John Hay Library, University Archives and Manuscripts Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148 Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	Gift of Janet Jakobsen beginning in 2023.
Accruals:	This collection includes ongoing web archiving of active website(s) to preserve the changes to the website(s) over time.
Processing information:	This collection was part of the Pembroke Center's Christine Dunlap Farnham Archive until 2024 when collections were recataloged. All collections previously grouped under that title are now searchable under the subject headings "Women and Gender at Brown University" or "Feminist Activism in Rhode Island."
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Erin Perfect, on behalf of the Pembroke Center for the Teaching and Research on Women and the Brown University Library
Encoding:	This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-12-21.
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)
Sponsor:	Curatorial work and processing provided by the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women on behalf of the Brown University Library.

Additional Information

Related material:	Related Materials For more information on Crosby's work with Sojourner House, listen to this 2016 oral history. See also the Elizabeth Weed papers (Ms.2016.009) at Brown University.
Other information:	Due to technology limitations, archived websites may not be exact copies of the original website. Archived websites are available through Brown University's Archive-it account and are full-text searchable.

Inventory

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