Boston University to offer graduate-level course featuring ‘trans saints’ and ‘genderfluid angels’
The course is called “Medieval Trans Studies.”
The course counts toward a Master’s or Ph.D. in English.
Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences is offering a graduate-level course next semester featuring “trans saints” and “genderfluid angels.” The broad theme for the course is “Medieval Trans Studies.” It can be counted toward a Master’s or Ph.D. in English.
According to the description on the university’s webpage for spring 2025 course options, “Medieval Trans Studies” students will examine “the deep histories of transgender embodiment” as found in various texts from the Middle Ages. The description says that students do not need a background in medieval literature or trans studies.
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That said, students will explore many different types of sexual and gender identities from a period of time that is commonly said to have begun in the year 500 A.D.
“Expect to read about alchemical hermaphrodites, genderfluid angels, Ethiopian eunuchs, trans saints, sex workers, and genderqueer monks,” the description says. “We will consider together how these medieval texts speak to the historical, theoretical, and political concerns that animate contemporary trans studies.”
Micah Goodrich, an assistant professor of English at Boston University, is the listed faculty for the course. Goodrich’s research interests include “how medieval authors invoke the cultural power of Nature and ‘the natural’ to highlight the possibilities and presumed limits of the body’s transformative potential and capacity to self-create.”
Goodrich’s other interests “include trans studies, queer theory, alchemy, Chaucer, Langland, Lollards, leprosy, and mysticism,” according to the assistant professor’s university bio. Goodrich has a book manuscript with the title of “Chronic Bodies: Transforming Nature in Medieval Literature.”
Boston University is not alone in offering a course that combines the study of transgender-identifying people with the Middle Ages. This fall, a Harvard University course taught students about “Gender in Byzantium.” The course involved studying “trans monks” and “genderless angels.”
Another Harvard course this semester taught medieval texts from the perspective of “queer theory.”
“We will ask: what can queer theory offer readers of medieval literature in its explorations of gender, sexuality, race, power, narrative, trauma, and time?,” a description of the course said.
Campus Reform contacted Boston University, the College of Arts and Sciences, and Micah Goodrich for comment, asking what they hope students get from the course. Campus Reform also requested a course syllabus or reading list for review. This story will be updated accordingly.
