Queer Histories of the Middle Ages

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Over the last several decades, one of the most exciting areas of research in history has been in historians’ efforts to uncover the history of sex, gender, and sexuality in different societies. Throughout this course, students will learn about how queer medieval people and communities have been studied by historians while also learning about the medieval people and communities themselves. We will discuss topics such as family structure, marital norms, the gendered division of labor, sexuality, and changing understandings of masculinity, femininity, and nonbinary gender. Students will learn how normative and non-normative medieval genders and sexualities were structured in different places and times within the medieval world according to social, legal, theological, and scientific belief and practice. Students will also learn how to weigh original source material, modern theoretical approaches, and the multiple agendas involved in producing scholarship.