CS 297 UNLOCKED: Rethinking Rufus feat. Thomas A. Foster

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This episode is hosted by Kenny, Mario, and T. Today we have Thomas A. Foster in the studio.  Thomas is a historian of gender and sexuality in early America. His work engages with a wide variety of fields, subfields, and topics including, disability studies, LGBTQ studies, masculinity, slavery, women’s history, and public history and memory.

Foster is Professor of History and Associate Dean at Howard University. Prior to that appointment, he was at DePaul University where he earned tenure and eventually promotion to full professor. Prior to the tenure-track, he held visiting assistant professorships at Rice University and the University of Miami.

Foster is the author or editor of seven books, including author of Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past which traced how popular understandings of the intimate lives of the Founders changed from the early Republic to the present to understand how sex, (mis)understood to be transhistorical, has been used to superficially bridge the historical chasm between Founders and each successive generation. Foster also edited two volumes on gender in early America: Women in Early America and New Men: Manliness in Early America, as well as a ground-breaking edited volume on LGBTQ history, Long Before Stonewall, and an edited collection of primary sources, Documenting Intimate Matters: Primary Sources for a History of Sexuality in America. He has published articles in The William and Mary Quarterly, Disability Studies Quarterly, the Journal of the History of Sexuality and essays in numerous anthologies, including Traces and Memories of Slavery in the Atlantic World (Routledge, 2019).

His most recent book is Rethinking Rufus: Sexual Violations of Enslaved Men.

Co-produced & edited by Aaron C. Schroeder / Pierced Ears Recording Co, Seattle WA ([email protected]). Opening theme composed by T. Beaulieu. Closing theme composed by Dustfingaz (www.youtube.com/user/TheRazhu_)