Peabody curator and Yale ornithologist Richard Prum sits down with professor Joanna Radin to discuss his new book “Performance All the Way Down: Genes, Development, and Sexual Difference”. This much anticipated follow-up to 2017’s “Evolution of Beauty”, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, applies queer feminist theory to developmental genetics, arguing that individuals are not essentially male or female.

The idea that gender is a performance has spread from college classrooms to popular culture. This transformative concept has sparked reappraisals of social expectations as well as debate over not just gender, but sex: what it is, what it means, and how we know it. In this new work, Prum brings feminist thought into conversation with biology, arguing that the sexual binary is not essential to human genes, chromosomes, or embryos.

Their conversation will be followed by a brief Q&A and light refreshments. Books will be available for purchase from event partner RJ Julia Booksellers and Dr. Prum will sign copies immediately following the program.