Dana Levin: Who is Who: Pronouns, Gender, and Merging Selves (January 2016)

Dana Levin’s investigation of the history of the third-person singular pronoun takes its spark from the work of trans poet Stacey Waite. In exploring how Waite gets around English’s pronounial either/or (he or she) through a trick of syntax, Levin’s lecture also discusses the sexism embedded in grammar rules, the multiple nature of the self, the mystic properties of naming, and the relationship between body and identity.