FEMALE BODIES, FEMALE SENSATIONS A History of Female Corporeity and Sense-Perception in Medieval Science – FemSen

Women’s studies, Body studies, and Sensory studies are three popular trends in current cross-disciplinary research. The project “FEMALE BODIES, FEMALE SENSATIONS” is situated at the intersection of these three domains. Against this background, and by taking a historical-philosophical approach, the project aims to study medieval scientific conceptualizations of female corporeity in relation to sense-perception theories also produced in medieval science. These are the objectives to be pursued: (i) to obtain a comprehensive study of medieval scientific theories of femininity, the female body, and sense-perception; (ii) to show if and to what extent sex and gender differences were considered to play a role already in pre-modern psychological theories; and (iii), on the other hand, to explore the potential role of sense-perception theories in influencing medieval views of female body and femininity. This study would eventually (a) uncover some unknown historical roots of present-days scientific theories linking psychology and sex and gender studies, and (b) help shedding light on medieval scientific views on women, by showing the variety of approaches that can be found in centuries generally, and indiscriminately, regarded as “misogynist”.