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OTTAWA, March 29, 2011  —  Professor Heather Murray of the Department of History has been awarded the Organization of American Historians (OAH) 2011 Lawrence W. Levine Award for her book Not in This Family: Gays and the Meaning of Kinship in Postwar North America.

Professor Murray’s book illustrates the range and depths of relationships between gay children and their heterosexual parents in the latter half of the twentieth century.

The author gives voice to gays and their parents through use of introspective writings, particularly personal correspondence and diaries, as well as through published memoirs, fiction, poetry, song lyrics, movies, and visual and print media.

The book not only charts a history of family dynamics and homosexuality, but also offers a window into the cultural shift from disapproval and banishment to negotiation, “coming out rituals” and new notions of family and selfhood.

The OAH is the largest learned society and professional organization dedicated to the teaching and study of the American past.

The University of Ottawa is committed to research excellence and encourages an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge creation, which attracts the best academic talent from across Canada and around the world.