"Sexual Sedition:

From the Espionage Laws to the War
on Terror"

Molly McGarry

New York City, March 8, 2006

A talk by Molly McGarry (Dept of History, Univ.
California, Riverside)

'Sexual Sedition' traces a genealogy of the current
War on Terror to the early years of the last century
when the U.S. Congress passed the 1917 Espionage Act
and the 1918 Sedition Act. These pieces of legislation
dramatically restricted free speech, created new legal
definitions of conspiracy, and fed into a current of
anti-immigrant political agitation, resulting in the
arrest and deportation of thousands.

This paper uses
the case of Dr. Marie Equi, an I.W.W. organizer who
was imprisoned under the sedition laws as "an
anarchist, an abortionist, and a degenerate," to
examine the links between sexual and political
dissidence, "unnatural" identities and un-American
acts.

Free and open to the public.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006, 2–4pm

CUNY Graduate Center

History Dept Lounge (room 5111)

365 5th Ave (between 34th & 35th St)

(One block east of the 34th St/Herald Square subway.
You don't need to be a student, but you need to show
some kind of picture ID & sign in to get into
the building.)