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Suffolk Discovers: The Gender Binary in Colonial Virginia and the Thomas(ine) Hall Case with Dr. Kathryn Wichelns [LIVE]
June 20 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Free
Interested in learning more about the world and history? Suffolk Discovers covers new themes that explore the cultures and backgrounds of people in our communities. For adults.
No registration required to attend in-person sessions. Registration required to attend virtually via Zoom. Registered participants will receive a link to the Zoom meeting at least 15 minutes before the event begins.
About the Talk:
Among Virginia’s earliest records is a court case describing the first known intersex person in British North America. In 1629, a servant known as Thomas Hall was taken before the Quarter Court at Jamestown. Hall’s ambiguous gender had become a matter of contention; the court minutes record the attempts of Hall’s masters, neighbors and the colonial government to determine their “true” sex. In the process of hearing the case, the court inadvertently created a remarkable document that preserves the voice of a gender nonconforming, intersex person in 1620s Virginia.
Please note the talk will be recorded but the recording will stop during the question and answer section. If you would like to ensure your privacy, please turn off your camera and microphone on Zoom.
About the Speaker:
Kathryn Wichelns earned a PhD in Comparative Literature from Emory University. Her scholarship focuses primarily on nineteenth-century America, using theories of the interdependent concepts of race, gender, sexuality and class to understand writing of the period. Her background in multidisciplinary and transnational approaches to reading American literature and literary theory means that Prof. Wichelns asks her students to explore the ways that forms of cultural production reflect their social circumstances: journalism, science, popular media, political writing and other forms of print culture are important to understanding the more conventionally literary work we read together
Schedule of Events:
The Gender Binary in Colonial Virginia and the Thomas(ine) Hall Case with Dr. Kathryn Wichelns
June 20 via Zoom
Against Technoableism with Dr. Ashley Shew
July 31 at Morgan Memorial and via Zoom