The Women’s Classical Caucus and Trans in Classics invite you to participate in a jointly hosted Reading Group, The Third Sex in Antiquity: Intersections of Trans Studies and Classics, on Wednesday, July 16 4:00-5:00 PM ET.

How can we ethically study gender in a culture and time that is not our own? This question is vital for members of both the Women’s Classical Caucus and Trans-in-Classics, and now more than ever it is important to make space for Trans Studies in Classics. Join us for a joint reading group around two recent publications, Ky Merkeley’s “Writing trans histories with an ethics of care, while reading gender in imperial Roman literature” (Gender & History 2024) and Talia Bhatt’s “The Third Sex” (Substack 2024).

Merkeley’s article offers a positive paradigm for historical trans studies and a theoretical explanation for the difficulty of the task at hand. Bhatt, meanwhile, shows how well-intentioned but flawed scholarship can misunderstand how gender functions, even in a contemporary culture, and damage the community it studies. Together, we’ll discuss the affordances and disadvantages of categorizing a “Third Sex,” a live issue in contemporary trans theory, and explore how it applies to historical trans studies. 

Questions for discussion:

• How do Merkeley’s and Bhatt’s work speak to one another, or not?
• What did you find challenging or encouraging to read?
• Are there any approaches or methods that you are interested in trying in your own teaching or research?
• What questions did these readings raise for you?