Tag: Historiography

Classroom Wars and Sexual Politics: An Interview with Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

Interview by Robert Self The schoolhouse has long been a crucible in the construction and contestation of “family values.” In Classroom Wars: Language, Sex and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford, 2015), Natalia Mehlman Petrzela focuses on battles over sex education and bilingual education in order to chart how Californians […]

Sex and the American Quest for a Relatable Past

By notcheseditor March 14, 2015 Early America 0 comments

Thomas Foster I’m sure our TRUNNELS look’d clean As if they ne’re up A—se had been; For when we use ‘em, we take care To wash ‘em well, and give ‘em Air, Then lock ‘em up in our own Chamber, Ready to TRUNNEL the next Member. In 1751 the Boston Evening-Post […]

Beyond the Binary: Trans* History in Early America

By Rachel Hope Cleves January 29, 2015 Dispatches, Early America 2 comments

Notches Dispatches are submissions from our readers that offer critical accounts of conferences, symposia, and workshops in the history of sexuality. This post by Rachel Hope Cleves is the first of a series of Dispatches from panels on the history of sexuality at the 2015 meeting of the American Historical Association. […]

365 Notches: (re)marks on our 1st anniversary

By notcheseditor January 6, 2015 History of Sexuality 0 comments

It’s hard to believe that we are celebrating one year of Notches! On 6 January 2014, with the support of the Raphael Samuel History Centre, we launched a new blog with the goal of getting folks inside and outside the academy to think critically about histories of sex and sexuality across […]

Uncovering Cleveland Street: Sexuality, Surveillance and late-Victorian Scandal

By Katie Hindmarch-Watson December 2, 2014 LGBTQ, Sexual Labour, United Kingdom 0 comments

Katie Hindmarch-Watson In the summer of 1889 a 15-year-old London telegraph boy named Charles Swinscow had a monumental encounter with his inspector. Charles had eighteen shillings in his pockets, more than twice his weekly salary. Postal Constable Luke Hanks, after discovering this suspicious amount, extracted a statement from Charles that […]

Sexual Histories, Scholarly Communities: A Dispatch from the John D’Emilio Symposium

By notcheseditor October 16, 2014 Dispatches, LGBTQ 0 comments

Ian Darnell On September 12, the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) held a symposium to honor the career of Professor Emeritus John D’Emilio. Early in the day, Pippa Holloway—once D’Emilio’s research assistant and student—observed that a hallmark of D’Emilio’s work was that he […]

Cunnilingus in the Middle Ages and the Problem of Understanding Past Sex Lives

By Tom O'Donnell July 29, 2014 Medieval 9 comments

Tom O’Donnell In order to conjure up the sexual practices of our forebears we have to bridge gaps. Gaps in language, time and ways of thinking. In order to write a history of medieval sexuality we need to know what that sexuality consisted of. It is hard enough to mentally […]