A spellbinding narrative history that defies modern assumptions about women’s lives in the Middle Ages and informs contemporary debates about sexual violence.

In the winter of 1472, the city of Dijon, France, became the stage for a remarkable legal drama. On the mayor’s orders, an investigator named Jaques Borestel went door-to-door questioning his neighbors about an alleged sexual assault. At the center of Jaques’s inquiry was a woman named Jehanne, who had taken the unusual step of making a criminal complaint in an age when victims of sexual violence did so at their own peril. Applying forensic analysis to witness testimony and Jaques’s case files, Sara McDougall uncovers Jehanne’s story of resilience and survival. Justice for Jehanne paints an unforgettable portrait of a woman who risked everything to demand justice against her attackers—and of a community that gave her shelter, protection, and acceptance as she endeavored to survive on her own terms.

Sara McDougall worked on Justice for Jehanne: The Tale of a Medieval Survivor during her 2023-2024 term as the John and Constance Birkelund Fellow at the Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. She will discuss her book with award-winning author Sarah Weinman.

This event is presented in partnership with the Women Writing Women’s Lives Biography Seminar.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Sara McDougall is a professor of history at John Jay College of the City University of New York and is on the faculty in Biography and Memoir, French, History, and Medieval Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of Royal Bastards: The Birth of Illegitimacy, 800–1230 and Bigamy and Christian Identity in Late Medieval Champagne.

Sarah Weinman is the author of Without Consent, winner of the 2026 ASJA Book Award in History/Biography; Scoundrel; and The Real Lolita. She also edited four anthologies, most recently Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning. A 2020 National Magazine Award finalist for reporting and the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, Art Omi, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Weinman writes the monthly Crime & Mystery column for the New York Times Book Review.

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ACCESSIBILITY

In-Person | Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue. You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service at least two weeks in advance of the event: please submit your request via this form. This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs. 

Livestream | Captions and a transcript will be provided. Media used over the course of the conversation will be accompanied by alt text and/or audio description. You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation at least two weeks in advance of the event: please submit your request via this form.

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The Cullman Center is made possible by a generous endowment from Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman in honor of Brooke Russell Astor, with major support provided by Mrs. John L. Weinberg, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Estate of Charles J. Liebman, The von der Heyden Family Foundation, John and Constance Birkelund, and The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, and with additional gifts from Helen and Roger Alcaly, The Rona Jaffe Foundation, The Arts and Letters Foundation Inc., William W. Karatz, Merilee and Roy Bostock, and Cullman Center Fellows.