Gatty Lecture Series

This talk by Juan Fernandez (PhD Candidate, Cornell University) examines three foundational ideas in the history and anthropology of sex and gender in Southeast Asia in the context of the colonial Philippines: the "high" status of women; the image of the man of prowess; and the concept and practice of gender pluralism.

This Gatty Lecture will take place at the Kahin Center, but people are also welcome to join us on Zoom. Lunch will be served. For questions, contact seapgatty@cornell.edu. 

Participate by Zoom here.

About the Talk

Drawing from episodes of the ethnographic encounter between the earliest generation of American anthropological field-workers during the first decade of the 20th century and their Indigenous interlocutors, the talk aims to rethink the assumptions behind the axioms of the study of gender and sexuality in the region, as well as tracing their roots in the history of anthropology.

About the Speaker

Juan Fernandez is a historian of modern Southeast Asia. He received his M.A. from the University of Chicago and his B.A. from the University of the Philippines at Baguio. He has two forthcoming publications: one is a contribution to an edited volume on Indigenous Studies in the Philippines, and the other is an article in the journal Philippine Studies, entitled "'From Savages to Soldiers': The Igorot Body, Militarized Masculinity, and the Logic of Transformation in Dean C. Worcester's Philippine Photographs."  He will be joining the faculty of the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in Fall 2023 first as an Anna Julia Cooper Postdoctoral Fellow, and subsequently as assistant professor of history in fall 2024.