This talk explores ideas and individuals who allegedly combined or crossed sex or gender categories in Europe from 200–1400 C.E.. Focusing on several efforts to categorize sex in medical and naturalist contexts, DeVun looks at how and why efforts to define “the human” so often hinged on ideas about nonbinary sex. In a moment when questions about sex, gender, and identity have become incredibly urgent, this talk casts new light on a complex and often contradictory past. It examines how premodern thinkers contributed to a system of sex and embodiment that both anticipates and challenges modern beliefs about what it means to be male, female—and human.
The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance (Columbia University Press, 2021) sponsored by the Medieval Studies Certificate Program, CUNY Graduate Center, co-sponsored by the Medieval Club of New York, Global Early Modern Studies, and the Center for the Study of Women and Society.
https://jjay-cuny.zoom.us/j/83181667515?pwd=Vk1mTXRuL0xMZWR1QmdUelE4dTBmUT09 [jjay-cuny.zoom.us]
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