Today the United States Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that granted women the right to an abortion. In his majority opinion Justice Samuel Alito used increasingly dismissive language, calling Roe v. Wade “egregiously wrong.” We are in the midst of a sea change concerning the rights of women as well …
Author Archives: okarthistorian
Queer Bodies in the Renaissance
I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationship between gender and the sexed body this month. No wonder. Not only is it Pride month, but on June 12th the President signed an executive order erasing healthcare protections for transgender persons, and only a few days later, the US Supreme Court ruled that the 1964 Civil …
The Myth of Progress
From the 15th century to the 18th century circumstances became demonstrably worse for black Africans and their descendants. This is not a history of progress, but one of devolution.
Gender, Race and Representation in the Renaissance
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about the disturbing killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breona Taylor and George Floyd. While the details of each incident differ, they are part of a much larger system of institutionalized racism and white supremacy in the United States. I’m a white woman, thus part of the system. …
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Building Renaissance Monsters
May is monster month, so I thought we’d take a break from the pandemic and look at the relationships between gender, monsters and buildings in the Renaissance. I’ll focus on the Hall of the Giants at the Palazzo Te, the subject of my book, Gender, Space and Experience at the Renaissance Court: Performance and Practice …
Pandemic Watch: Medici, The Magnificent
You’ve finished binging Tiger King (even the sad ‘wrap up’ episode). Outlander just had its season finale on Starz. What is a cooped up fan of soapy, historical, problematic dramas to do? Well, there’s always season three of “Medici: Masters of Florence,” now streaming on Netflix. I just finished watching it and while some of …
Miracle Cure? Quack Medicine in the Renaissance
Ever since President Trump suggested using disinfectant to treat Covid-19 I’ve been thinking about history of using poisonous materials to treat disease. The President’s remarks concerning disinfectant can be traced to so-called chlorine dioxide (read, industrial-strength bleach) treatments, in which parents attempt to cure their autistic children by bathing them in the chemical, feeding it …
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Back Off: Touch, Contamination and Social Distance
A woman rushes forward, her arms thrown wide as if the embrace the man in front of her. He pulls back, twisting dramatically to escape her grasp and holds up a cautionary hand to two women in the middle ground. In the time of Covid-19 such images resonate strongly. While we may not have pulled …
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Gender in Time of Pandemic
In 1348 the Black Death came to Europe. Known as the bubonic plague in modern parlance, the Black Death ravaged the continent, killing anywhere from a quarter to half of the population. The plague devastated the economy, up-ended the political system and struck at the heart of ideas of faith, family and community. Sound familiar? …
Building Women
What do buildings tell us about the women who built them? For, despite political, religious and social structures meant to keep them from power, women throughout the early modern built big. Today, I’ll focus on women in the Islamic world, a squishy term that for my purposes refers to modern-day Arabia, the eastern Mediterranean, North …
The Renaissance Uncensored 