What is a “Trans Woman”?: Towards a Useful Category of Historical Analysis (Hybrid)
In this lecture, historian Jamey Jesperson considers the utility of “trans woman” or “trans womanhood” as categories of historical analysis by identifying patterns and parallels of gender transformation from antiquity to the modern age. Just as she examines the risks of tracing such a global phenomenon, she challenges the insistent historiographical refusal to name it. To flip colonialist charges on their head, she pulls from her dissertation on Indigenous North America, de-romanticizing it as an exotic place “before the gender binary,” but rather just one corner of the world where certain binaries could sometimes be crossed. And almost always, this was towards woman.

To join this hybrid event online, please email mailto:hflgbtq@history.ox.ac.uk before the event to receive the meeting link.
Date: 16 May 2025, 15:00
Venue: History Faculty, George Street OX1 2RL
Venue Details: Rees Davies Room
Speaker: Jamey Jesperson (Victoria)
Organising department: Faculty of History
Part of: LGBTQ+ History Faculty Network
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://tinyurl.com/22f3er6x
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Belinda Clark