Bradley Boovy Oral History Interview on the Corvallis Queer Film Festival

Dr. Boovy is an assistant professor at Oregon State University with a background in Germanic studies, Spanish studies and women studies. He grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and attended most of his early and undergraduate education there. While he was in New Orleans, he focused on studying the relationship and conflicts between the LGBTQ society and religious society. Boovy has a background in the Catholic religion from his upbringing, so religion was one of the key influences for him to start activism for the LGBTQ community because of the homophobic opinions of Catholicism. After several years, he moved to Austin, Texas when he completed his Ph.D. in Germanic studies in 2012. His experiences in Austin helped him understand the LGBTQ+ community at the time and inspired him to work even more to create more spaces that are open for all people under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. When he moved to Oregon for his German studies job at Oregon State University, he began to organize and work on the Corvallis Queer Film Festival until 2016. During the festival, Boovy took charge of the marketing part, finances and scholarships, and general overview of the festival as a whole. He was in-charge of organizing where the event took place, Corvallis Darkside Cinema, which has since become the permanent home of the festival. The main reason for his departure from the festival was to help create OSU’s Queer Archives, in Oregon State’s special collections and archives with Natalia Fernández. Boovy’s research currently focuses on queer history and the changes in culture over time, especially in Europe, and how it was influenced by nationalism.