When you spy a Pride Flag, does jousting come to mind? Do you imagine knights identifying as nonbinary? Have you reckoned Robin Hood's men were more than merely merry? If castles conjure thoughts of keens and quings, a New England school has a spectacular seminar for you.
As advertised online:
Join Boston University’s Global Medieval Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Programs along with their sponsoring partners for the "Pre- and Early Modern Trans Studies Symposium."
The conference will be held...March 23rd-25th...(Sunday--Tuesday). This "EmoTrans" (Early Modern Trans) (workshop) is hosted by Micah Goodrich and will feature new and exciting work on the medieval and classical periods as well as the Renaissance. The event is free.
Per BU Today's promotion, the exploration will address something surprising:
This conference brings together scholars working at the intersections between the fields of trans studies, medieval studies, and early modern literary studies. While the projects of historicizing trans studies and queering premodern and early modern studies are ongoing, it is surprising that there has thus far been relatively little engagement with trans studies by scholars working on ancient, medieval, and early modern literature and history, especially given our field’s long genealogy of feminist and queer approaches.
On offer amid the inspection: three queries...
- What, if anything, makes the ancient, medieval, and early modern period rich for trans studies?
- What does trans studies bring to the medieval/early modern (period)?
- What, in return, can medieval/early modern studies bring to trans theory and analysis?
RELATED: United States and China: Rivals in an Increasingly Medieval World
It's a curious convergence of concepts, since transgenderism -- the idea that an individual may become a man or woman (or both, or neither) at will or by fluctuation of feeling -- is notably new. Perhaps experts assert it thrived during the Dark Ages and then evaporated -- only to reappear more than half a millennium down the road.
If so, it wouldn't be the first time scholarly announcement has outdone expectation:
Scientific American: The Racist Myth of Binary Sex Wasn't Invented 'Til Nearly 1800
High School Biology Class Tells Kids Biological Sex Is a Social Construct
Professor: A Man in the Bible Breastfed, and Joseph's Colorful Coat Means He Was Transgender
As for symposium host Micah Goodrich, a faculty page describes him/them thusly:
Micah Goodrich (he/they) is assistant professor of English with affiliations in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Global Medieval Studies at Boston University. He received his PhD at the University of Connecticut in 2020. Their book manuscript “Mercurial Natures: Trans Hermeneutics and Chaucerian Bodytexts” details a literary history of bodily and textual mutability in the work of Geoffrey Chaucer. Their approach to Chaucer’s archive is informed by recent work in medieval gender and sexuality studies and the history of the body, which they bring into conversation with the methodologies of transgender studies.
Micah’s areas of interest include medieval and early modern literature, trans studies, history of the body, queer theory, hermeneutics and interpretation, nature, alchemy, Chaucer, and (William) Langland. ... Currently, he is co-editing with J.D. Sargan "A Cultural History of Trans Lives, 300-1450."
A glance at some of Mr. Goodrich's published works:
- “An Herbal Triptych: Queer Intimacies and the Vegetal Middle Ages" (forthcoming, co-authored with Danielle Allor), in “Queer Environs."
- “Medieval Intersex: Discourses and Discontents" (forthcoming), in "The Companion to Sexuality in the Medieval West."
- “Trans Antagonisms and Affirmations in Henry Medwall’s Nature,” in Special Issue “Medieval Trans Natures” for "Medieval Ecocriticisms."
- “Trans Animacies and Premodern Alchemies,” in "Medieval Mobilities: Gendered Bodies, Spaces, and Movements."
MicahGoodrich.com lays out the schedule for next week's extravaganza. Among the events:
- “Unmaking Men: Gender Transformation in the Medieval North” -- Caz Batten, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania
- “The Many-Gendered Cosmos: A Trans Account of Ancient Astrology” -- Nick Winters, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University
- “Who’s Afraid of Eunuchs?: Trans/Crip Epistemologies of Chaucer’s Pardoner” -- Alice Fulmer, PhD Candidate, University of California Santa Barbara
- “Reimagining Gender: Trans Sacrality, the Medieval Imagination, and the Proliferation of Identity” -- C. Libby, Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State University
- “Medieval Trans Pessimism with Tiresias” -- Blake Gutt, Assistant Professor, University of Utah
- “Broken Trans*masculinities: On Trans*negativity, Maiden-Kings, and Old Norse Studies” -- Basil Arnold Price, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, Los Angeles
- “He/Him/Hole: The Pardoner, Again” -- Micah Goodrich
It's a medieval mouthful. The seminar certainly offers an unconventional combo; in the end, maybe attendees will marvel at the modernity of a time when medicine lauded leeching.
Did "gender" -- a linguistic notion 'til not many years ago -- define the era of Genghis Khan? Did our newfound sexual concepts permeate that primitive period? Interested enrollees of an elite Massachusetts research school will soon find out. If the Middle Ages turn out to be transtastic, Medieval Times restaurant might want to update its entertainment; jousting seems a tad bit toxically masculine. What should replace its cisgender, barbaric combat? Perhaps only America's enlightened academics can say for sure.
-ALEX
See more content from me:
How Gay Are Gables? Ivy League School's Architecture Program Goes 'Trans*'
Tackle the Trauma of Valentine's Day: University Celebrates Students Repulsed by Romance
Find all my RedState work here.
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