Short abstract:

This paper reads 20th century medical case studies undertaken in Lebanon of so-called 'disorders of sex development' against the grain to recentre the embodied subjectivity of participants and contextualise the studies within broader socio-political histories of civil war and settler colonialism.

Long abstract:

In the 1960s and 1970s recurrent exchange visits between endocrinologists, obstetricians and gynaecologists from the American University of Beirut and Johns Hopkins University prompted a flourishing of research into the genetic and endocrinological basis of so-called ‘disorders of sex development’ (DSDs) in Lebanon. These studies continued at the American University Hospital throughout the Lebanese Civil War, in the midst of a conflict that saw Beirut physically divided between the control of militias along the notorious ‘Green Line’. While most of these studies took place in Beirut, the 20th century history of DSD research in Lebanon is also notable for two case studies written up on individuals resident in the villages of South Lebanon bordering Israel, during periods of ongoing conflict between Israel and Lebanese armed groups. One of these studies was carried out in Lebanese territory by Israeli researchers from Rambam Medical Centre.

In this paper I apply a queer lens to the above body of research, reading published case studies against the grain to recentre the subjectivity of the individuals whose genetic materials, hormonal profiles and life histories constituted the raw materials for scientific knowledge production concerning biological sex in Lebanon. In so doing, I demonstrate how these studies are embedded within broader socio-political histories of conflict and settler colonialism, in which context the bodies of participants are subjected to bordering practices both at the level of binary biological sex and within the broader socio-spatial environment.