Peter Sigal

Peter Sigal is Professor of History and Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies at Duke University's Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. His research examines the history of sexuality, Latin American colonial history, and the relationships between colonialism, ritual, and sexual representation in Nahua societies.

Sigal's work explores how sexuality and ritual practices were represented in colonial texts, analyzing power dynamics in cultural encounters. His research interests include queer theory, ethnopornography as methodology, and the transformation of gender systems under colonialism. He has published extensively on Franciscan missionary perspectives, Nahua goddess traditions, and the construction of masculinity in colonial contexts.

His award-winning book 'The Flower and the Scorpion: Sexuality and Ritual in Early Nahua Culture' investigates indigenous sexual practices through colonial manuscripts. Sigal has received the Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Book Award and was a Fellow at the National Humanities Center.

Current courses include 'History of Sexuality', 'Aztecs and Mayans', and 'Sexual Pleasure in the Modern World', examining historical and contemporary dimensions of sexuality across cultures.