An Interview with Historian Rictor Norton

By Stephen Brogan Author Interviews, Early Modern, LGBTQ

NOTCHES caught up with historian Rictor Norton to discuss his views on interpreting historical homosexuality and the future of LGBTQ studies.

Three’s a Crowd?: Navigating a Love Triangle in Enlightenment France

By Meghan Roberts Early Modern

How an Enlightenment philosopher understood the love between his mistress and her sister

‘She rose in the Morning of a contrary Sex’: Stories from Early Modern Wonder Books

By Lee Raye Early Modern

Early modern wonder books included stories of people who changed sex as a surprising natural phenomenon.

Teaching the Early Modern “Penis-Vagina”

By Julia Gossard Early Modern, Medicine and the Body, Pedagogy

Presenting Vesalius’ “penis-vagina” (as many students took to calling it) on the first day of class immediately primed students to dissect early modern social constructions of gender and sexuality.

Same-Sex Marriage in Renaissance Rome

By Katherine Harvey Author Interviews, Early Modern, LGBTQ

Same-sex couples in the early modern period claimed marriage in their own particular ways.

Women’s Experiences in Fornication and Paternity Suits in Massachusetts, 1740-1800

By Kelly Ryan Early America

Women’s confessions and paternity suits reveal a host of information about the sexual lives of early Americans.

The Origins of Sex: An Interview With Faramerz Dabhoiwala

By Katherine Harvey Author Interviews, Early Modern

Dabhoiwala traces the transformation of western approaches to sexuality during the Enlightenment.