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On Feb. 11–12, The University of Tampa will welcome Emma Rees, professor of literature and gender studies at the University of Chester, U.K., to give readings from her book, The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History.

On Thursday, Feb. 11, Rees will speak as part of the Department of English and Writing’s Scholars’ Symposia series in conjunction with the Honors Program’s symposia series from 4–5:30 p.m. in Martinez Athletics Center’s Sword & Shield Room.

Then on Friday, Feb. 12, The Friends of the Macdonald-Kelce Library will host Rees for a reading in the Trustees’ Board Room on the ninth floor of the Vaughn Center from 4–5:30 p.m.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Rees is a professor in English at the University of Chester in the U.K., focusing on the Early Modern period and on literature and film. She has published extensively in the field of gender and representation and is on the editorial boards of Gender Forum, The Journal of Feminist Scholarship and Writing from Below. Her latest book, The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History, examines the paradox of female genitalia through five fields of artistic expression: literature, film, TV, visual and performance art.

During her Honors Symposium lecture, titled Vulvanomics, she will consider the often surprising origins of how we talk about vaginas, and why people have such a problem doing so in a candid way. She will map how advertising, filmmaking and art have profited from the taboo of the vagina, and how they even perpetuate ideas of shame. If we confront the taboo, she argues, we can also confront the real-world abuses it currently masks.

For more information, go to https://utscholarssymposia.wordpress.com or contact Kacy Tillman (symposium event) at ktillman@ut.edu, or Leslie Vega (library event) at lvega@ut.edu. The Scholar’s Symposium event will be live tweeted using #utscholars.