Amanda Wray grew up in Kentucky as the youngest daughter in a family of elders who knew the history of the land and who took the time to storytell. I attended the University of KY as a first generation college student and earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in English Literature. While completing a PhD at the University of Arizona, I had the great fortune of working closely with Dr. Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, who is considered a pioneer in LGBTQ+ oral history work. My life was forever changed when I learned that oral history and storytelling could “count” as an academic pursuit. In 2011, I joined the faculty at UNC Asheville, where I now serve as the Director of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Program and teach writing and gender studies courses. 

In 2019, I partnered with Blue Ridge Pride to launch the LGBTQIA+ Archive, an oral history and physical artifacts repository that aims to preserve LGBTQIA+ history of the South. Blue Ridge Pride LGBTQIA+ Archive has grown to become the largest digitized LGBTQ+ collection in the state of NC, and we are among the repositories working toward full digitization and open (free) access to users of all ages.