The Clements Bookworm #84: Fellow Focus with Ben Bascom

"Feeling Singular" reconceives the Early Republic period of the United States by presenting the forgotten and queer stories of a series of marginal, even eccentric figures in the republican United States. Through closely reading a range of texts—from manuscripts to hastily printed books, and from phonetically spelled pamphlets to sexually explicit broadsides—Bascom uses the language of queer studies to understand what made someone singular in the early United States and how that singularity points at the ruptures in social codes that get normalized through historical analysis. Ben Bascom was a 2024-2025 recipient of the Norton Strange Townshend Fellowship at the Clements Library.

Special thanks to the Spectrum Center for sponsoring this month’s episode!

You may also like the following events from William L. Clements Library:

• This month, 21st August, 04:00 pm, Guided Tour in Ann Arbor
• This month, 22nd August, 04:00 pm, Guided Tour in Ann Arbor
• Next month, 19th September, 02:00 pm, The Clements Bookworm #83: Author Conversation with Gary Krist in Ann Arbor, Michigan