Bob Tobin papers
Scope and Contents
Materials in this collection date from 1984 to 2003 and include newsletters, meeting minutes, event planning notes, financial documents, event flyers, event t-shirts, newspaper clippings, VHS tapes, and correspondence between Tobin members of the Whitman and Walla Walla community. Materials in this collection were generated through Tobin’s work as the faculty advisor to Whitman’s LGBTQ groups such as the Gay Lesbian Association (GLA) and Coalition Against Homophobia, and relate to his being an openly gay professor at the college. There are also materials relating to a homophobic phone call made to Tobin, which reflect the nature of the environment Tobin and the local LGBTQ community were facing at the time. This collection documents LGBTQ activism and student organizations from the 1990s and early 2000s at Whitman College from a community leader and student advisor perspective and is useful to researchers interested in grassroots LGBTQ organizations.
Dates
- Creation: 1984-2003
Creator
- Tobin, Robert (Person)
Biographical / Historical
Robert “Bob” Deam Tobin was born in 1961 in Urbana, Illinois, though he was raised in Eugene, Oregon. He attended Harvard University earning his A.B. in German Literature in 1983 and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in German Literature from Princeton University in 1987 and 1990, respectively. He began his teaching career at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington in 1989. In 1993, his class "Sexuality and Textuality," was the first sexuality-focused class at Whitman, and he was a founding member of the Gender Studies Department later that year. He also taught and researched in German Studies, LGBTQ studies, film studies, and the humanities. He served as the Associate Dean of the Faculty and Chair of the Humanities, and was named Cushing Eells Professor of Humanities.
At Whitman, Tobin served as a faculty advisor to the Gay Lesbian Association (GLA). Beginning in 1989, GLA was a small, highly confidential student group funded through alumni donors to maintain independence and privacy. In 1992, wanting to maintain the necessary confidentiality of GLA, but desiring a more activist LGBTQ rights-focused student group, Tobin and student Alexis Cofield founded Coalition Against Homophobia for both LGBTQ activists and straight allies. Throughout the 1990s, Coalition Against Homophobia made a name for itself as the voice of LGBTQ issues on campus, hosting many major LGBTQ-focused events like DragFest, LesBiGay Week, and Rainbow Rage, many of which became Whitman traditions for the next decade. During his time at Whitman, Tobin was also involved with Whitman’s gay alumni group, Whitman Gay and Lesbian Alumni (WGALA) and contributed to the WGALA newsletter.
After teaching at Whitman for 18 years, Tobin began teaching at Clark University in the fall of 2008 as the inaugural Henry J. Leir Chair in Language, Literature, and Culture. At Clark, he taught and researched in gay and lesbian studies, queer theory, gender studies, human rights, and German and European cultural studies. He published four books, including Warm Brothers: Queer Theory and the Age of Goethe (2000). Bob Tobin died on August 10, 2022 in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Extent
1.46 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Bob Tobin papers contain materials such as newsletters, event planning notes and flyers, newspaper clippings, VHS tapes, and correspondence ranging from 1984 to 2003. Materials relate to Tobin’s work as the faculty advisor to Whitman’s LGBTQ groups and general LGBTQ activism in the Whitman and Walla Walla community.
Topical
- Title
- Guide to the Bob Tobin papers
- Author
- Sofia Solares, Ree Robson
- Date
- 2023
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- 2023: The Bob Tobin papers were previously housed in the Whitman College LGBTQ collection, WCA118 (now the Whitman College LGBTQIA Student Services records). A new finding aid was created for the Tobin papers, and the collection was rehoused in acid-free folders. Historical research conducted by Ree Robson in 2019 was used extensively in the writing of this finding aid.
Repository Details
Part of the Whitman College and Northwest Archives Repository