Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography provides a much-needed study of trans and genderqueer subjects separate from sexuality. Instead, the ten articles view how non-normative gender is often entangled with holiness in medieval hagiography; each of the examined subject's gender and sanctity is “extraordinary” in the truest sense of the word. The volume is divided into three sections, the first dedicated to reinscribing trans and genderqueer realities; the second is focused on viewing objects, images, and identities through a trans and genderqueer lens; and the third examines gender, genre, and trans texualities. With the exception of two contributions, one on the Byzantine Empire and another on Iron Age Scandinavia, the articles focus on western European Catholic traditions.

While each article sets its own parameters for gender and identity, the volume collectively looks at transgender “not just as an identity . . . but [as] a way of disrupting normative and essentializing frameworks” (13). This definition allows for an expansion of what can be viewed through the lens of trans theory, and each individual article provides an example of strong scholarship using a theoretical lens. The effect of the volume as a whole is a call to action for academia. In their introduction, Gutt and Spencer-Hall deftly address common criticisms leveled against trans and queer theoretical scholarship, such as ahistoricism and lack of neutrality. They also identify the stakes of work that envisions a trans past, both for the production of knowledge and for modern individuals, reminding scholars that trans theory is not an academic tool to be picked up and put down without consideration for trans lives currently being lived. To this end, an appendix of trans and genderqueer studies terminology is included at the end of the volume. The book is also deeply aware of what it lacks, namely greater geographical, religious, and racial diversity of its subjects, and it enthusiastically calls for academia to respond to that lack by uplifting the voices of scholars, particularly trans scholars, engaged in this work. Overall, Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography points to exciting new possibilities for studying gender in the premodern world.