Academic Papers
Here are some of my academic papers, which are downloadable by clicking on the pdf icons.
Flowers and Femininity: Sex, Women, and the Botanical Sciences
A study in the effects of developmental understanding of sex through botany on the gender roles and social notions of inferiority and superiority.
This paper explores the discovery and developmental understanding of plant sexuality, sex, and gender roles during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, emphasizing key botanical works and their social implications. It highlights the importance of scientific botanical works including that of the so-called “Father of Botany” is Theophrastus of Eressus, Nehemiah Grew’s The Anatomy of Plants (1676), Carl Linneaus’ Systema Naturae (1758), and Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, and Selection Related to Sex (1871). Additionally, the roles of Enlightenment thinking, female education, and changing perceptions of gender roles both in the public and private spheres. The role of female botanical illustrators has been well documented and gained more appreciation and recognition for their contributions to the field of the botanical sciences. The evolving discourse on human and plant sexuality illustrates both the challenging and reinforcing of gender norms, contributing to a broader understanding of gender and sexuality in society.
Passing in Plain Sight: Visibility, Activism, and Identity in Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues
The act of passing would seem to be the opposite of activism because it is an act meant to avoid detection. While the language of passing is, itself, problematic, African-descended people passing as white might be read as attempting to capitulate to a racial binary. Similarly, trans people passing as cis or cishet might be read as attempting to capitulate to the gender binary rather than challenging it. But this paper explores the potential for reading passing as a surprising act of activism that foregrounds resistance, resilience, and solidarity rather than disappearance. I focus on Leslie Feinberg’s groundbreaking trans novel Stone Butch Blues (1993) and the feelings of anxiety and dissatisfaction that the protagonist, Jess, feels in her varied attempts to pass as male. Feinberg’s novel illuminates the ways that the danger and mobility of passing create an important sense of resilience and solidarity among marginalized communities. While passing can never be divested from histories and strategies of trying to escape structures of surveillance and oppression, I show how it can be viewed as a strategic, intentional act of mobility that deepens communal and personal understandings of identity.