Gender & Sexuality on the High Seas | 2022 ASA
The theme of the 2022 meeting poses that “the roof is on fire” and the water is rising, but perhaps this very water provides respite from the confines of our social roles. This panel explores open water as liminal space with its loosely defined—or absent—borders facilitating broader self-expression for the people working, serving, and living upon it. We call for scholarship examining ways in which contemporaneous boundaries of gender and sexuality have been expanded, rejected, and/or pantomimed on the high seas, ranging from the expression of 18th century pirates to 19th century whalers to 20th century naval officers.