Join ALOT for a talk by University of Manchester Historian, Laura Doan on May 13th, 2018 at 7PM. It will be held at SFU Harbour Centre Room 7000. Arrive early for refreshments!

Spotting a lesbian in the past is not difficult. Signs abound in the photographs of historical figures such as Radclyffe Hall, a writer now widely associated with lesbianism. For contemporary viewers assigning labels—say, butch lesbian—feels almost second nature. Yet, as historians of sexuality explain, we acquired the habit of defining people’s sexuality this way relatively recently. This talk explores the constraints and possibilities of “lesbian history,” questioning how we might navigate between a past already known and one that seems strange to us now.

Laura Doan is Professor of Cultural History and Sexuality Studies at the University of Manchester, England.  She is the author of Disturbing Practices: History, Sexuality and Women's Experience of Modern War (2013) and Fashioning Sapphism: The Origins of a Modern English Lesbian Culture (2001), which received the John Boswell Prize for an Outstanding Book on Lesbian/Gay History and the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction.