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SUMMARY:Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities Lecture
DESCRIPTION:"Fierce Desires: Variation\, Conflict\, and Pleasure in the 
 History of American Sexuality"\n\nRebecca L. Davis\, University of 
 Delaware\n\nBelle McWiliams Lecture Series\n\nIn the United States today\, 
 we have government decrees that there are only two sexes\, debates about 
 “trad wives” and polyamory\, and frequent references to the nation’s 
 “puritan” past. But in her latest book—and in this talk—Professor 
 Rebecca L. Davis argues that seventeenth-century Puritans are a weak 
 precedent for how the history of sexuality has unfolded in the United 
 States. Into the 1800s\, the United States was far more welcoming of gender 
 nonconformity and same-sex/queer desires than we might presume. Instead\, a 
 significant shift occurred in the late nineteenth century\, when 
 anti-obscenity and anti-immigration legislation vastly expanded the federal 
 government’s investment in shaping sexual morality. The history that 
 unfolds is far less about prudish puritans than shifting sexual values. Our 
 contemporary conflicts over sex and gender highlight the power of this 
 surprising history.\n\nRebecca L. Davis is a historian of sexuality\, 
 gender\, race\, and religion in the United States and the author or editor 
 of four books. Her most recent book\, Fierce Desires: A New History of Sex 
 and Sexuality in America\, was a one of The New Yorker’s Best Books of 
 the Year\, a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year\, a 2025 finalist for 
 the Lambda Literary Lammy Award in LGBTQ  nonfiction\, and a Kirkus Reviews 
 Best Book of the Year. A professor of History and a professor of Women and 
 Gender Studies at the University of Delaware\, her work—spanning books\, 
 essays\, and podcasts—aims to make the past newly relevant to 
 contemporary debates about bodies\, identity\, and intimacy.\n\nThis 
 lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of History.\n\nMore details are 
 available at Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities.
LOCATION:2nd Floor Common Area (McWherter)
ORGANIZER;CN="Michelle Dry":MAILTO:mdry@memphis.edu
CATEGORIES:
CONTACT;CN="Michelle Dry":MAILTO:mdry@memphis.edu
STATUS:CONFIRMED
UID:LibCal-17481507
URL:https://libcal.memphis.edu/event/17481507
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