Elvis Bakaitis is currently the Head of Reference at The Graduate Center’s Mina Rees Library. They hold an MLIS from Queens College, and a Certificate in Geriatric Care Management from the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging at Hunter College.
A recipient of the 2023 Rockefeller Archive Center Fellowship administered through the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Bakaitis researched on LGBTQ Foundation support in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Bakaitis is excited to work on their 2023-24 PSC-CUNY Grant-funded project, Nuclear Frissons: The Art & Activism of Sharon Gilbert, based on the work of the celebrated artist book-maker and ceramicist.
Past + Future Events
On June 28th, 2023, Bakaitis will co-present with Ashley-Luisa Santangelo at the Whitney Museum’s Member Night, on the topic of zines and LGBTQ poster art, including highlights from the Lesbian Herstory Archives.
Support for a Queer CUNY – And Beyond
Bakaitis is a board member of CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies, and member of the Archives Committee. They are proud to serve on the University LGBTQ Council as the Chair of the Preferred Names & Gender Subcommittee.
They are committed to researching and sharing out LGBTQ histories, as well as supporting scholarship in these areas. As a 2022 Visiting Scholar at the University of Victoria’s Transgender Archives, they conducted research for the project – “Spiritual & Esoteric Formations in Queer Print Culture(s),” establishing connections between 19th Century Spiritualism, theosophy, and the LGBTQ activism of 20th century philanthropist Reed Erickson.
Highlights from 2020-2021:
In February 2020, Bakaitis was awarded a Carnegie-Whitney grant from the American Library Association, towards their bibliographic project “Queering Aging Studies: A Theoretical and Cross-Cultural Approach.”
In March 2020, they were awarded a travel grant from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History & Culture for research at Duke University about queer zines. Also in March 2020, Bakaitis was a recipient of a Schlesinger Library Oral History Grant from Harvard University (on an honorary basis due to COVID-19), for “Tracing a Lineage of the Women in Print Movement: Bluestockings Bookstore.”
In December 2020, the Lesbian Herstory Archives was awarded a Public Knowledge Grant by the Mellon Foundation. Bakaitis served as the Principal Investigator for this opportunity, which has lead to a collectively run elders’ oral history project, digitization of audio/video, and online exhibits.
In Fall 2021, they coordinated a panel discussion, “Bluestockings Bookstore: Strengthening Activism & LGBTQ Community,” hosted and generously supported by The Bibliographical Society of America.
Open Knowledge Intensive (2021)
Alongside project co-collaborators Prof. Matt Brim, Brian Mercado (Sociology), and Karen Zaino (Urban Education), Bakaitis developed a Spring 2021 Open Knowledge Intensive, with the valued support of a Doctoral Curriculum Enhancement grant – administered by The Publics Lab and funded by the Mellon Foundation.
Separately, they organized the Spring 2021 event “Towards a Critical, Decolonized Pedagogy: An Interactive (Re)Visioning,” featuring Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz and Veronica Arellano Douglas, and supported by a Transformative Learning in the Humanities grant, also funded by the Mellon Foundation.
Recent Professional Development
Spring 2023: Transformative Learning in the Humanities Faculty Fellowship, a program funded by the Mellon foundation
Spring 2021: Library Freedom Project cohort
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