University News
Colin Johnson to Present "What the Torch-Wielding Villagers Knew" Sept. 17
September 8, 2014
MACOMB, IL -- Macomb High School alumnus Colin Johnson will return to his hometown later this month to present a thought-provoking lecture on the history of gender, sexuality and sexual differences in the U.S.
Johnson will present "What the Torch-Wielding Villagers Knew" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17 in Morgan Hall 109. His lecture is sponsored by the University Committee on Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Expression (UCOSOGIE) and the LGBTQA Resource Center. The presentation is open free to the public.
According to Johnson, who is an associate professor of gender studies and adjunct associate professor of American studies, history and human biology at Indiana University Bloomington, self-described "moderns" have long characterized provincial life as backward, brutish and fundamentally reactionary.
"We can look at how an ignorant provincial mob, such as the mob in 'Frankenstein,' has shaped our understanding of the history of gender and sexual difference in the United States, especially our understanding of LGBT life," Johnson explained. "Although it acknowledges there is indeed a long history of homophobia and transphobia in the American provinces, we can also insist that rural and small-town communities work differently as social systems than cities and suburbs, particularly today when rural and small-town living is itself a minoritizing experience of sorts."
Johnson's paper, of the same title as the presentation, calls for a more nuanced understanding of homophobia and transphobia in non-metropolitan contexts, one that simultaneously accounts for the historical persistence of such sentiments in rural areas and small towns even as it refuses to naturalize them.
Johnson teaches courses on feminist theory, queer theory, LGBT studies and the history of gender and sexuality in the United States. A two-time winner of Indiana University's Trustees' Award for Teaching Excellence, Johnson is the author of "Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America," which was named a finalist for the 2014 Lambda Literary Award. He also is co-editor, with Mary L. Gray and Brian Gilley, of a major new edited collection, "Queering the Countryside: New Directions in Rural Queer Studies," to be released in early 2015. He has held fellowships at the University of Michigan's Institute for Research on Women and Gender; the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History; the Johns Hopkins University's Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality; the University of Helsinki's Ruralia Institute; and in 2015, he will be Visiting Scholar in Residence at the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies at McGill University in Montreal.
Since 2011, Johnson has been a member of the governing board of the Committee for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History, an affiliate organization of the American Historical Association and the oldest professional association for scholars of LGBT history in the United States.
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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