Rate My Professor John D’Emilio

John D’Emilio is a Professor Emeritus in the History Department and Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Illinois Chicago, where he taught from 1999 until his retirement in 2014. A leading scholar in History, he continues to research and write on U.S. history since World War II, social movements, and the history of sexuality. D’Emilio earned his B.A. cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia College in 1970, M.A. in 1972, and Ph.D. in History from Columbia University in 1982. Prior to UIC, he was Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro from 1992 to 1998, Associate Professor from 1988 to 1992, and Assistant Professor from 1983 to 1988. He served as Director of Gender and Women’s Studies at UIC from 2002 to 2004 and Director of Graduate Studies from 2005 to 2006. Additionally, he was Founding Director of the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1995 to 1997, former co-chair of its board, and served on the board of the Gerber/Hart Library in Chicago.

D’Emilio is a pioneer in gay and lesbian studies. His key publications include Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970 (University of Chicago Press, 1983; second edition, 1998); Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America, co-authored with Estelle B. Freedman (Harper & Row, 1988; second expanded edition, University of Chicago Press, 1997), cited by Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court decision; Making Trouble: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and the University (Routledge, 1992); The World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and Culture (Duke University Press, 2002); and Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin (Free Press, 2003), a National Book Award finalist, Stonewall Award winner, and New York Times Notable Book. He has received the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1998–1999), National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (1997–1998), Brudner Prize from Yale University (2005) for lifetime contributions to lesbian and gay studies, University Scholar Award at UIC (2003–2005), and induction into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame (2005).