Jennifer Finney Boylan: She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders

Building E51, Wong Auditorium (E51-115)

4:00pm: Reception and book signing, Ting Foyer
5:00pm: Reading followed by Q&A

Free and open to the public!
Please register: tinyurl.com/boylanMIT

Event is sponsored by Women's and Gender Studies
Institute Community & Equity Office
MIT Libraries
School of Architecture & Planning
Sloan Student Life

This talk opens with a short reading from Boylan’s bestselling memoir, She’s Not There, as well as the anthology It Gets Better, and will then open up into a discussion of gender and society. The talk touches upon Transgender 101 (a brief overview of the wide range of gender expression), and then moves outward to address the embracing of diversity in its many forms. The talk will be followed by Q&A with audience members.

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PROFESSOR JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN, author of fifteen books, is the inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College of Columbia University. Her column “Men & Women” appears on the op/ed page of the New York Times on alternate Wednesdays.

From 2011 to 2018 she served on the Board of Directors of GLAAD, the media advocacy group for LGBT people worldwide. She was co-chair of GLAAD’s board of directors from 2013-17.

She was a consultant and cast member for I AM CAIT, the docu-series about Caitlyn Jenner that debuted on the E! network in July of 2015; and also served as a consultant to the Amazon series TRANSPARENT. She has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender, and Reproduction.

Her most recent book is the novel Long Black Veil, published by Penguin Random House in April 2017.  Two other current projects are Falcon Quinn and the Bullies of Greenblud, an anti-bullying YA project; and the anthology of women writing about home, This is the Place.

Her 2003 memoir, She’s Not There: a Life in Two Genders(Broadway/Doubleday/Random House) was the first bestselling work by a transgender American. A novelist, memoirist, and short story writer, she is also a nationally known advocate for civil rights. Jenny has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show on four occasions; Live with Larry King twice; the Today Show,the Barbara Walters Special, NPR’s Marketplace and Talk of the Nation; she has also been the subject of documentaries on CBS News’ 48 Hours and The History Channel.

She lives in New York City, and in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, with her wife, Deedie, and her two sons, Zach and Sean.