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Fandom + Piracy / Fandom & Race Panel featuring Alfred Martin

February 22, 2021

Join Alfred L. Martin Jr., author of The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom for a virtual event on Thursday, March 11, 2021, at 8:00pm (EDT).

Book Launch: Gender, Pleasure, and Violence with author Agnieszka Koscianska

Join us for a discussion with the author Agnieszka Koscianska about her book Gender, Pleasure, and Violence: The Construction of Expert Knowledge of Sexuality in Poland, recently translated into English. The book recounts the non-linear history of sexuality in Poland under socialism and the changes that have taken place within it as a result of the post-socialist transformation. Gender, Pleasure, and Violence focuses on the expert understanding of sexual pleasure and sexual violence, and shows how in relation to these categories, the notion of gender has been defined and re-defined.

Socialist Sexualities: Expert Knowledge and Intimate Revolutions in Poland and Czechoslovakia

Behind the Iron Curtain, the politics of sexuality and gender were, in many ways, more progressive than the West. While Polish citizens undoubtedly suffered under the oppressive totalitarianism of socialism, abortion was legal, clear laws protected victims of rape, and it was relatively easy to legally change one’s gender. In Gender, Pleasure, and Violence, Agnieszka Kościańska reveals that sexologists—experts such as physicians, therapists, and educators—not only treated patients but also held sex education classes at school, published regular columns in the press, and authored highly popular sex manuals that sold millions of copies. Yet strict gender roles within the home meant that true equality was never fully within reach. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and archival work, Kościańska shares how professions like sexologists defined the notions of sexual pleasure and sexual violence under these sweeping cultural changes. By tracing the study of sexual human behavior as it was developed and professionalized in Poland since the 1960s, Gender, Pleasure, and Violence explores how the collapse of socialism brought both restrictions in gender rights and new opportunities.

The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland with Hamilton East Public Library

February 18, 2021

James H. Madison, the Thomas and Kathryn Miller Professor of History Emeritus at Indiana University, offers new knowledge about a significant organization in Indiana’s history. He explains the Klan’s popularity during the 1920’s and the goals of the many native-born, white Protestants who joined. He expands the story by focusing also on those Hoosiers the Klan judged less than 100% American, including African Americans and Jews, and the Klan’s primary enemies, Catholics and immigrants. Jim Madison also spotlights those courageous Hoosiers who stood up to the Klan and eventually brought its downfall.