Sex Behind the Dining Hall

Her presentation, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 26, in Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center, Room 101.

Going back to the late 1500s, Rothman focuses on the case of two young employee-residents in the Venetian embassy in Istanbul. Their not-so-secret same-sex love affair opens a rare window into the lives of early modern diplomatic interpreters as mediators between two different Mediterranean worlds. It also provides a crucial historical perspective on the experience of the earliest “global nomads” in an age before the nation-state.

In her presentation, she will offer a unique take on a number of issues important to the Grinnell College campus, community, and the world at large, including sexual identity and interactions between and among diverse communities.

Rothman’s scholarship focuses primarily on the the history of cultural mediation, the genealogies of Orientalism, and the relationship between translation and empire. She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. She earned her M.A. in cultural research from Tel Aviv University and her Ph.D. in anthropology and history from the University of Michigan.

Her first book, the award-winning Brokering Empire: Trans-Imperial Subjects between Venice and Istanbul, explores the intersecting worlds of those whose activities and identities pushed the imperial and cultural boundaries of the early modern Mediterranean.

Center for the Humanities is sponsoring this event.

Grinnell College welcomes the participation of people with disabilities. Room 101 in the Rosenfield Center is equipped with an induction hearing loop system, which enables individuals with hearing aids set to T-Coil to hear the program. Accommodation requests may be made to Conference Operations, 641-269-3235.