IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 313: Gender Queering the Medieval: Trans and Non-Binary Narratives and Readings

Sponsor:	Society for the Study of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages
Organisers:	Kübra Cevherli, Faculty of Theology, Sakarya University, Turkey Sophie Conaghan-Sexon, School of Critical Studies (English Language), University of Glasgow
Moderator/Chair:	Blake Gutt, Department of French, University of Cambridge
Paper 313-a	Cross-Dressing and Saintly Bodies in Ælfic's Lives of Saints (Language: English) Rachel Evans, School of English, University of Leicester Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Language and Literature - Old English
Paper 313-b	Joan's Gender in Celluloid: The Filmic Joan of Arc as Transhistorical 'Transgender Warrior' (Language: English) Andrew Seager, Department of Film Studies, University of Dundee Index terms: Gender Studies, Hagiography, Performance Arts - General, Religious Life
Abstract	New volumes are beginning to look at trans and gender queer bodies and identities in the medieval period, with journals such as Transgender Studies Quarterly providing key insights into how we can identify queer subjects for study in the past. This panel will demonstrate how we can utilize interdisciplinary trans readings of medieval figures to create a more inclusive view of the medieval past: one that acknowledges the memory of bodies that lived beyond the gender binary. We will discuss how we can queer the memory of figures whose gender fluidity has gone unacknowledged for so long to create possibilities for future research in the emerging field of transgender studies.