EVENT DETAILS

'The Sign of the Lesbian (in an Age of Queerness)' - A talk by Prof. Valerie Traub

'The Sign of the Lesbian (in an Age of Queerness)'
A talk by Prof. Valerie Traub from the University of Michigan

"Why might those of us who research, teach, and think about sexuality and queerness want or need a history of lesbianism? What would such a history do for us? My inquiry into this question takes the form of a meditation on the knowledge relations that currently obtain among “lesbian,” “queer,” “history,” and “theory.” Addressing the increasing distance within queer studies between “history” and “theory,” I examine the critical work that “the sign of the lesbian” might perform, were “she” to be conceived not as a sign of identity, but as a sign of a historiographic problem for queers." (from Prof. Traub's upcoming book, 'Making Sexual Knowledge: Thinking Sex with the Early Moderns').

Sponsored by the Department of Sexuality and Gender Studies, the Department of English, and the Group for the Study of Early Cultures.

For more information please see flyer attached.