Aleks Jagielski: My dissertation is about the poetry of Piotr Włast and transphobic discourses around him present in Polish scholarship. In my presentation, I will discuss these discourses, give an introduction to Włast’s life and poetry, and speak about how a trans perspective sheds new light on his work. I can also mention how I went about the project and the difficulties I’ve had with accessing Włast’s poems.
Dr Ezra Horbury: I will be discussing 'Pre-Modern Transphobia', which takes an intersectional and historicist approach to what we might consider transphobic antecedents. I'll discuss subjects such as the anti-Semitic myth of menstruating Jewish men, supposed cross-dressing popes, and the evolution of 'monstrous hermaphrodites' in early bioknowledge.
Dr. Xine Yao: I will be presenting from an essay I've written entitled "Gender Variance Before Trans" from the forthcoming Cambridge History of Queer American Literature which foregrounds trans and queer of colour critique as a way of reading literature before mid twentieth century.
