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"But Among Our Own Selves We'll Be Free:" The LGBTQ+ Community in 18th Century English Colonial America Online
Join us for a fascinating virtual presentation on a part of LGBTQ life during colonial times. Presenting is Megan Rhodes Victor, PhD, assistant professor of anthropology at Queens College - CUNY.
"Located within eighteenth-century taverns of the English Colonial World, molly houses were clandestine locations wherein gay men and cross-dressing individuals could meet and participate in elaborate gendered performances. They served as spaces to interact, to socialize with others ‘like them’, to engage in more intimate relations, and to participate in complex rituals simulating births, ballroom dances, marriages, and tea parlor gatherings. As taverns, molly houses were places where individuals could conduct social negotiation and form bonds of community, due to these buildings’ inherent “alcosocial” nature. Taverns were largely male-coded drinking spaces in the eighteenth century, and yet these were also one of the few places where women – especially unmarried or widowed women – could work and even manage (or own) a business. This apparent gender contradiction may have played a role in taverns and inns serving as the location for molly houses.
- Date:
- Tuesday, March 11, 2025
- Time:
- 7:00pm - 8:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
- Online:
- This is an online event. Event URL will be sent via registration email.
- Audience:
- Adults Teen
- Categories:
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion History & Local Interest
Dr. Megan Rhodes Victor is an Anthropological Archaeologist with a specialization in Historical Archaeology. Their research focuses on commensal politics, drinking spaces, trade and exchange, informal economy, the 18th-century queer community in the English Colonial World, gendered spaces, digital archaeology, and community-driven projects. They received their BA from University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2010. They earned their MA (in 2012) and their PhD (in 2018), both from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. They then had a postdoctoral scholarship at the Stanford Archaeology Center at Stanford University, in Stanford, California, where they directed the archaeological excavations of the Arboretum Chinese Labor Quarters (ACLQ). They are now an assistant professor here at Queens College in the Department of Anthropology, where they teach courses on Archaeology, including Intro to Archaeology, the Archaeology of North America, and Digital Archaeology, and run internships out of their Digital Archaeology Lab, of which they are the Director.