Gender and Sexuality in the Late Medieval World

4.0 credits

This course examines the histories of gender and sexuality in Europe from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. We will investigate topics such as marriage, rape and consent, sex work, queer and transgender histories, and the role of sex in the development of medieval constructions of race. To explore these themes, we will critically analyze a diverse range of primary sources in translation, including chronicles, legal records, scientific texts, and personal letters. We will survey how scholarly interpretations of medieval gender and sexuality have evolved since the 1980s and how medievalists have brought the period into conversation with fields such feminist history, queer theory, trans studies, critical race theory, and histories of law and science.