Arts at W&M

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[PAST EVENT] LGBT Victorians: Researching and Writing in a Pandemic

October 7, 2022
3:30pm - 5:30pm
Location
Tucker Hall, Tucker Theater 127A
350 James Blair Dr
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
Access & Features
  • Open to the public
outdoors, outside, trees, flowers, summer, confusion corner, college corner, sign, logo
outdoors, outside, trees, flowers, summer, confusion corner, college corner, sign, logo

Simon Joyce's new book, LGBT Victorians: Sexuality and Gender in 19th Century Archives (Oxford University Press) considers whether there were Victorians we might now call transgender, and how to identify them in the archives given that no such term existed then. While the 1895 trials of Oscar Wilde and his subsequent imprisonment provide an infamous example of persecution for sexual difference, Prof. Joyce also finds a larger body of evidence of non-normative genders and sexualities and more tolerant attitudes than the Wilde trials might suggest.

Joyce's richly illustrated talk will provide a sketch of his new book and narrate the challenges that arose in doing archival work during Covid, when international travel was limited and archives closed. How did Joyce do his extraordinary detective work in these circumstances? And how did the funds from his Cloud Professorship—funds generously supplied by alumni--help to bring this important expansion of our knowledge of the history of gender and sexuality to completion in these difficult years?



Contact

For more information, please contact Arthur Knight at [[iaknig]].