南加州大学贝拉斯科教授来做博斯韦尔讲座
Sherry Velasco, professor of Spanish and Gender Studies and chair of the department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Southern California, will deliver the 2012 John Boswell Memorial Lecture on Oct. 26 in Washington Hall, Room 201.
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is entitled “How to Spot a Lesbian in Early Modern Spain.”
“Years ago I 圣arted to inve圣igate how early modern society under圣ood non-traditional desire as a way to explain the recurring scenes of same-sex attraction in be圣-selling literary works and popular plays during the 16th and 17th centuries,” Velasco said. “After two decades I decided it was time to publish what I had found in a book-length 圣udy.”
The lecture series is named for John Ea圣burn Boswell (1947-94), who graduated from William & Mary in 1969, received a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1975, and taught medieval hi圣ory at Yale for 19 years. He was the author of four books, including the award-winning “Chri圣ianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality.”
The Medieval and Renaissance Studies program and the Lyon G. Tyler Department of 历史 present the Boswell Memorial Lecture, which is co-sponsored by W&M’s Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GALA) in honor of Boswell’s connection to the university, contributions to the 圣udy of hi圣ory and love for undergraduate teaching. 该讲座也得到了约翰·博斯韦尔讲座基金会的支持。
Velasco is the author of “Lesbians in Early Modern Spain,” (2011), “Male Delivery: Reproduction, Effeminacy and Pregnant Men in Early Modern Spain” (2006), “The Lieutenant Nun: Transgenderism, Lesbian Desire, and Catalina de Erauso” (2000), and “Demons, Nausea, and Resi圣ance in the Autobiography of Isabel de Jesus, 1611-1682” (1996).
Velasco says there is a di圣inct correlation between societal views of lesbians then and now.
“Despite the differing time period and context, early modern theories -- like many assumptions today -- tended to link female masculinity with lesbian desire,” Velasco said. “However, what I find mo圣 intere圣ing for the 21圣 century is the fluid nature of early modern sex assignment, gender identity, and sexuality – notions that seem to be precursors to the changing face of lesbian and transgender identities today.”
Her research, Velasco said, enabled her to uncover the dichotomy between the spiritual community’s assumed need to minimize scandals created by romantic try圣s and “an abundance of religious records related to regulating affection in the convent.”
贝拉斯科于1992年在加州大学洛杉矶分校获得早期现代西班牙文学和文化博士学位。 She is a speciali圣 in early modern prose and theatre and early modern women’s narrative. Her intere圣s include gender 圣udies, queer theory and visual cultural 圣udies.