About

Jen Manion is a social and cultural historian whose work examines the role of gender and sexuality in American life. Manion is the Winkley Professor of History at Amherst College and Department Chair of Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies. Drawing on their expertise in U.S. history, Manion’s writings cover a broad range of topics including the origins of prisons in America, transgender history and politics, and the LGBTQ rights movement. Manion has written two award winning books – Liberty’s Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America and Female Husbands: A Trans History – and dozens of essays, including one in the New England Journal of Medicine about historic injustices toward LGBTQ people and one in The New Republic on transgender history as a form of political resistance. Before joining Amherst College, Manion worked for a decade as the founding director of the LGBTQ Center at Connecticut College and faculty member in the department of history.

Press

Commentary

THEY
FEMALE HUSBANDS
MOMS FOR LIBERTY
PRONOUNS
TRANS HISTORY
THEY

Talks

I have presented my work in a wide variety of places over the years from high schools, colleges, and community groups to research libraries, public history sites, and faculty seminars. My early research on the origins of the penitentiary system in the U.S. focuses on women’s crime and punishment while also analyzing how race, class, gender, and sexuality shaped the system’s early decades. Recent talks illuminate queer/trans histories of the 18th & 19th century U.S. and U.K., drawing from my research on female husbands and other gender nonconforming practices prior to the invention of homosexuality. The newest talks examine the history of medical injustice towards LGBTQ people, including the legacy of entrenched stigma as well as individual and collective resistance, which ultimately became the LGBTQ health movement. I am always eager to help audiences think about connections between the past and present! Some of the places I have presented:

Libraries & Archives

American Antiquarian Society, Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Cary Library, Countway Library, Eastern State Penitentiary, Fredericksburg Area Museum, George Washington’s Mt. Vernon, German Historical Institute, Historic Deerfield, Huntington Library, James Monroe Museum, Kinsey Institute, Library Company of Philadelphia, Longfellow House, Maine Historical Society, Massachusetts Historical Society, National Park Foundation, National Theater Institute, New York Historical Society, Newberry Library, Schlesinger Library, Vermont Humanities Council, Wellfleet Public Library

Colleges & Universities

Brown University, Bryn Mawr College, Carlton College, Carnegie Mellon University, Clark University, Community College of Rhode Island, Cornell University, DePaul University, Emory University, Georgetown University, Greenfield Community College, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, Mt. Holyoke College, New School for Social Research, Penn State University, Pratt Institute, Rutgers University, Skidmore College, Smith College, Stanford University, Texas Tech, University College London, University of Arizona, University of Cambridge, University of Chicago, University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts, University of Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, University of South Carolina, University of Southern Maine, University of Texas, University of Western Ontario, Utah State University, Vassar College, Virginia Commonwealth University, Wellesley College, Wesleyan University, Western New England Law School, Yale University

Scholarship

Digital Resources

TRANS CHILDREN IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA
SEXUALITY &
THE CARCERAL STATE
PRISON SEX & SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

Books

Articles

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  1. “A Legacy of Cruelty to Sexual and Gender Minority Groups,” New England Journal of Medicine 2024 ↩︎
  2. “Queer Methods & Trans Historicism,” Sources and Methods in the History of Sexuality, 2024 ↩︎
  3. “Female Husbands” in program for Cowbois 2023 ↩︎
  4. “Carceral History in the Era of Mass Incarceration,” PMHB 2019 ↩︎
  5. “Language, Acts, and Identity in LGBTQ Histories,” The Routledge History of Queer America 2018 ↩︎
  6. “Transgender Representations, Identities & Communities,” Oxford American Women’s & Gender History 2018 ↩︎
  7. “Gender Expression in Antebellum America,” U.S. Women’s History 2017 ↩︎
  8. “Gendered Ideologies of Violence, Authority, & Racial Difference in NY Penitentiaries,” RHR 2016 ↩︎
  9. “The Queer History of Passing as a Man in Early Pennsylvania,” PA Legacies 2016 ↩︎
  10. “Transbutch,” TSQ 2014 ↩︎
  11. “Gay Politics Without a Past,” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking 2014 ↩︎
  12. “Historic Heteroessentialism & Other Orderings in Early America,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2009 ↩︎

Action