Welcome Back Lunch and Faculty Talk

GWS invites you to help us kick off the new spring semester with a "Welcome Back" lunch and faculty talk. The event will be held on Wednesday, January 29th at 12:00 p.m. in the Radnor St. David's Room. Travis Foster will be giving his presentation, "Darwin, Jewett, Freud, and the Ecology of Queer Life."

Travis Foster is Assistant Professor of English at Villanova University, where he specializes in pre-1900 American Literature. He is finishing a manuscript on literary culture and affective belonging in the wake of the Civil War, a piece of which is forthcoming in American Literary History. His articles have also appeared in American Literature, ESQ, and the Edith Wharton Review, and his chapter on nineteenth-century queer texts is forthcoming in The Cambridge Companion to Gay and Lesbian American Literature.

His talk for GWS comes from a new project on literature, botany, and the conceptualization of sexuality before sexology.

 

Richard McCann: "Transitions: The Girlhood of a Bio Male"

On Wednesday, November 20th at 4:00 p.m. in the Radnor St. David's Room, Richard McCann will be presenting, "Transitions: The Girlhood of a Bio-Male."

Richard McCann is the author of Mother of My Sorrows, a work of fiction, and Ghost Letters, a collection of poems. He is also the editor of Things Shaped in Passing: More 'Poets for Life' Writing from the AIDS Pandemic. His fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in magazines such as The Atlantic, Ms., Esquire, Ploughshares, Tin House, and The Washington Post Magazine. He is also published in numerous anthologies, including The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 and Best American Essays 2000. He is currently working on a memoir, The Resurrectionist, which explores the experience and meanings of illness and mortality through a narrative exploration of his experience as a liver transplant recipient.

This event is co-sponsored by the Gay Straight Coalition and the English department. It is free and open to the public.

"Plastic Boy: Transgender Identity Unpacked"

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On Wednesday, October 23rd at 7:00 p.m. Aiden Kosciesza will visit Villanova to give his presentation, "Plastic Boy: Transgender Identity Unpacked."

Aiden is a transgender writer, speaker, and activist who has given presentations about LGBT identity both in the US and abroad. He first spoke out about LGBT civil rights as a graduate student at Villanova's Freedom School, and later focused on transgender issues as he explored his own identity as a transsexual man. He began sharing his personal story of discovery aboard Peace Boat, a Japanese NGO that promotes peace and understanding through sustainable travel.

This event is co-sponsored by Villanova's Gay Straight Coalition and the English department. We hope that you will join us to hear Aiden's personal and thought-provoking story!