Panel Discussion Announced to Follow May 5 Performance of ORIGIN STORY

The Department of Theatre and Dance at Gustavus Adolphus College is pleased to announce a panel on gender and intersexuality following the May 5, 8:00 p.m. performance of Origin Story in the Anderson Theatre. “The Plight of Pronoun: What Origin Story Reveals bout Gender & Intersexuality” will be an open discussion about the play’s themes with Gustavus Adolphus professors Yurie Hong, Rob Kendrick and Martin Lang. Julia Tindell (’13) will moderate.

The panel will deal with the provocative subjects of Origin Story, a tragic tale about an intersex person. The play is a contemporary adaptation of the hermaphrodite myth and highlights the limitations that the pronouns “he” and “she” can create.  The main character of the play, Pronoun, is someone who does not fully fit into the conventional categories of male or female.

The panel will examine the ways the play resonates with its audience, take questions or comments and hopefully motivate the community to think critically about gender perception and to visualize what changes are necessary to make Gustavus Adolphus College a safe place for intersex people.

The Participants:

Yurie Hong received her B.A. in Classics at UCLA and her Ph.D. at the University of Washington.  Her research and teaching interests include sex and gender in antiquity, ancient medicine, feminist pedagogy, and classics and feminism in popular culture.  She is currently working on a book about representations of pregnancy and childbirth in Archaic and Classical Greek literature.

Rob Kendrick teaches and writes on early modern literature and literary theory in Gustavus Adolphus College’s English Department.

Martin Lang is an Assistant Professor in Communication Studies and focuses his academic work on the ways that mass media help to shape our individual and collective senses of identity, especially in relation to gender, race, socioeconomic class and sexuality.  He also explores the potential of the media as tools for social justice and equality.

The panel discussion on  “The Plight of Pronoun: What Origin Story Reveals bout Gender & Intersexuality” is open to the public at no charge and will begin immediately following the 8 p.m. performance of Origin Story on Saturday, May 5.  Tickets for Origin Story are available at the SAO Desk or at gustavustickets.com.