Biography in English

Margriet van Heesch, PhD, is senior lecturer at the department of sociology at the faculty of behavioral sciences:

"For my research in gender, sexuality, and queer studies, I have studied how sexism, racism and classism, inequality and stratification are always disrupted by resistance, agency and resilience. It led me to become fascinated by new research- and teaching methodologies: Queer interruptions. In short, I employ queer interruptions as the ‘diffraction’ and ‘interference’ of authoritative knowledges (found in for example medical texts) by juxtaposing them with subversive knowledges (found in popular culture and oral history). 

The first leg of my research is the queer interruption of contemporary LGBTQI cultures and in specific the I of Intersex issues: I study the contemporary configurations of the heterosexual matrix, heteronormativity and homophobia and the subversive possibilities for the intersex human rights movement to ‘un-diagnose’ intersex bodies and experiences. For example, in the Netherlands, the estimated number of people living with an intersex condition is around 190.000 and only around 50 of them gave full self-disclosure (‘out of the closet’)? How can a queer interruption make space for their stories and experiences?

The second leg of queer interruptions is the queer interruption of heartache, the critical study of contemporary cultures of romance and ideologies of romantic love with a special attention for the cultural analysis of couple culture and heteronormativity. In this research, I diffract ideologies of romance the imperative to couple up with the study how romance, sexuality and desire are experienced and represented in now-a-days popular culture and lived experiences? How is romantic love is socially constructed in our consumerist, transnational, geo-political and post-colonial heteronormative and ever-changing social world? How can a queer interruption make space for failure, for heartache, and for unrequited love?"

Biografie in het Nederlands

Dr. Margriet van Heesch, cultuurwetenschapper, is als senior lecturer verbonden aan de afdeling sociologie van de faculteit der maatschappij en gedragswetenschappen van de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Na het behalen van haar doctoraal  in filosofie en algemene cultuurwetenschappen, promoveerde zij op het gebied van gender en queer studies aan de AISSR en ASCA. In haar onderwijs en onderzoek analyseert zij intersekse en gendervraagstukken, gender studies, queer studies, LHBTQI, seksualiteit, en een kritische analysie van ideologieën de romantische liefde. Zij publiceerde in NRC, De Gids en De Correspondent en werkt aan "De Kleine Butler" uit serie kleine boekjs, groete inzichten van Atlas Contact en aan een publieksversie van haar proefschrift over de Nederlandse geschiedenis van intersekse: De verborgen geschiedenis van het geslacht (werktitel).

Kijk naar hoe de onevenaarbare RAVEN van Dorst in hun serie "Geslacht" Margriet van Heesch interviewd over de geschiedenis van intersekse  https://vrouw.nl/video/de-tv-thermometer/41630/intersekse-is-net-zo-gewoon-als-flaporen

LUISTER NAAR DE PODCAST VAN VPRO's Future Shock ("over hoe we omgaan met voortdurende verandering. Achtergronden en verdieping van VPRO Tegenlicht"). #20 Het geheim van intersekse https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/tegenlicht/lees/specials/future-shock-20.html

Monografie: "Ze wisten niet of ik een jongen of een meisje was: kennis, keuze en geslachtsvariaties" (proefschrift) 

http://nl.aup.nl/books/9789056297640-ze-wisten-niet-of-ik-een-jongen-of-een-meisje-was-kennis-keuze-en-geslachtsvariaties.html

In Nederland leven circa 80.000 mensen die geboren zijn met een geslachtsanatomie die niet helemaal overeenstemt met de norm voor mannen- en vrouwenlichamen. Vroeger heette dit hermafroditisme of intersekse condities en in 2006 werd een derde term voorgesteld: disorders of sex development. Omdat alle drie de termen nog in gebruik zijn, wordt in dit proefschrift gesproken van geslachtsvariaties. Vanaf de jaren 1950 werd het standaard praktijk kinderen met een geslachtsvariatie te behoeden voor sociale problemen door hen in een klinische setting een gender toe te wijzen en die procedure vervolgens geheim te houden. Maar hoe was dat voor  die kinderen? Hoe kijken zij als nu-volwassenen terug op de medische interventies en de geheimzinnigheid?  Door het herschikken en interfereren van de kennis uit de levensverhalen met de kennis uit medische narratieven ontstond een meervoudig perspectief. Zo werd duidelijk dat medische interventies in geval van geslachtsvariaties verantwoord werden in een asymmetrisch kennisnetwerk dat doordrongen was van paradoxale boodschappen. Kennisproducties en kennisnetwerken rondom geslachtsvariaties waren dan wel contingent, maar niet waardevrij. De onderliggende ideologie die de paradigmaverschuivingen, vergissingen en accommodaties in gang zette, was en is hoofdzakelijk normatief. Met name in de narratieven rondom schaamte waren de normatieve implicaties te herkennen, zoals binaire genderopposities, voortplantingsimperatief, heteronormativiteit, homofobie en het coïtale imperatief. Dit onderzoek wil bijdragen aan het beschouwen van  deze mensen als volwaardig met volwaardige lichamen, volwaardige levens en een volwaardige seksualiteit.

Monography Dissertation:  (2015) They Didn't Know Whether I Was a Boy or a Girl:  Knowledge, Choice and Intersex Conditions. 

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Tineke Abma (VU), Prof. Dr. Guy Widdershoven (VU) and Prof. Dr. Hugo Heymans (UvA).

To gain insight into long term effects of surgical and hormonal interventions in childhood, I listened to the life stories of more than 40 Dutch people who reached adulthood while living with an intersex condition in The Netherlands. With this research I aim to situate the diversity of lived experiences with medical interventions for intersex in a gender critical and epistemological perspective. How do  people with intersex conditions evaluate their lives and incorporate the normative choices, made in the daily medical practices and discourse? Their stories raise hope and provide alternatives for past and current medical interventions. Subsequently their stories show long-term insights that are conceivably relocated from the medical discourse towards a socio-cultural, epistemological and ethical discourse:There is nothing we can gain from secrets.

Lees meer van Margriet van Heesch in NRC, DE Gids of de Corrspondent

85.000 Nederlanders hebben een intersekse conditie: Tijd om hen te leren kennen. In: De Correspondent 20 juli 2016 https://decorrespondent.nl/4960/85000-Nederlanders-hebben-een-intersekseconditie-Tijd-om-hen-te-leren-kennen/1145407160480-97dbf2e4

Verstop geen grappige borsten, NRC Handelsblad 19 maart 2016 http://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/2016/03/19/verstop-geen-grappige-borsten-1600438

Wanneer is een Lesbienne ontmaagd? in: NRC Handelsblad 6 juni 2015  http://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/van/2015/juni/06/wanneer-is-een-lesbienne-ontmaagd-1500286

Promiscue Ornaatelfjes in: NRC Handelsblad 6 juni 2015  http://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/van/2015/juni/06/promiscue-ornaatelfjes-10-1501848

Wetenschappelijke gemeenschap in: NRC Handelsblad 6 juni 2015  http://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/van/2015/juni/06/wetenschappelijke-gemeenschap-1501630

Zet geslachtsvariaties ook in het biologieboek: Heesch en Abma in NRC 27 maart 2015 www.nrc.nl/opinie/2015/03/27/zet-geslachtsvariaties-ook-in-het-biologieboek/

Zo'n contract vooraf werkt niet bijdate rape, NRC Margriet van Heesch 13 oktober 2014 www.nrc.nl/opinie/2014/10/13/zon-contract-vooraf-werkt-niet-bij-date-rape/

Podacts bij VPRO TEGENLICHT: FUTURESHOCK Margriet van Heesch over Intersekse

https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/tegenlicht/lees/specials/future-shock-20.html

International Refereed Publication

Margriet van Heesch: "Do I have XY chromosomes?"

in: Critical Intersex (ed. Morgan Holmes) New York/London Routledge 2016 (Burlington VT: Ashgate Press, 2009)

https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Intersex-1st-Edition/Holmes/p/book/9780754673118   

Presenting the latest theoretical and empirical research from an international group of experts, this is a truly interdisciplinary volume containing critical approaches from both the humanities and social sciences. With its contributions to sociology, anthropology, medicine, law, history, cultural studies, psychology and psychoanalysis, Critical Intersex will appeal to scholars and clinical practitioners alike. Editor Sociologist Morgan Holmes (Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada)

Sociologist Prof. Raewyn Connell (University of Sydney) in her 2011  review: "Margriet van Heesch’s chapter ‘‘Do I Have XY Chromosomes?’’ explores intersex people’s negotiations with doctors in the Netherlands. It is based on specific life stories and documentary history, and is beautifully clear and compassionate. Rather than sweeping generalizations about culture, van Heesch locates medical practices, including the withholding of knowledge from patients, precisely in the changing context of biomedical knowledge and professional beliefs."In: Contemporary Sociology 40, 2 2011 (p. 194-5)

Margriet van Heesch, Hoe te getuigen van onze tijd, De Gids 2019/1 de-gids.nl/2019/no1/hoe-te-getuigen-van-onze-tijd:

De Franse filosoof Michel Foucault meende dat als een verandering in denken nodig is, die alleen bereikt kan worden door een permanente staat van kritiek. Echter, waarschuwt hij, kritiek is niet een zaak van zeggen dat dingen niet goed zijn zoals ze zijn. De kunst is aan te wijzen hoe wij onbewezen aannamen of ondoordachte denkstructuren en het onrecht waarvan we getuige zijn, accepteren. Het beoefenen van kritiek is een zaak van het moeilijk maken van makkelijke gebaren. Of zoals Amerikaanse filosoof Donna Haraway Kértesz aanvult: ‘Verzet je tegen elke simplificatie, altijd.’

Zet geslachtsvariaties ook in het biologieboek in: NRC Handelsblad 27 maart 2015 http://www.nrc.nl/opinie/2015/03/27/zet-geslachtsvariaties-ook-in-het-biologieboek/

Een frauduleus medisch protocol heeft mensen met een dubbel geslachtskenmerk jarenlang benadeeld, stellen Tineke Abma (hoogleraar participatie & diversiteit) en Margriet van Heesch (cultuurwetenschapper) vast. "In de brugklas ontdekte Marianne links en rechts een bobbeltje in haar liezen. In het ziekenhuis stelde een arts vast dat het niet om kanker ging. Wat het wel was, dat vertelden ze haar niet."

Zo'n contract vooraf werkt niet bij date rape in: NRC Handelsblad 13 oktober 2014 www.nrc.nl/opinie/2014/10/13/zon-contract-vooraf-werkt-niet-bij-date-rape/

Date rape komt ook in Nederland voor. In Californië is er laatst een wet tegen ingevoerd. Yes means yes. Maar helpt zo’n contract? Praten en luisteren is effectiever, meent UvA-docent Margriet van Heesch. "Meer inzicht in ambivalent seksisme, heteronormativiteit en de mythes van mannelijke seksdrang en vrouwelijke inborst te liegen (kijk maar hoe Eva Adam bedroog) zou misschien wel een wapen tegen date rape kunnen zijn."

Wetenschappelijke gemeenschap in: NRC Handelsblad 6 juni 2015 http://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/van/2015/juni/06/wetenschappelijke-gemeenschap-1501630

Wanneer is een lesbienne ontmaagd? in:  NRC Handelsblad 6 juni 2015 http://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/van/2015/juni/06/wanneer-is-een-lesbienne-ontmaagd-1500286

promiscue ornaatelfjes in: NRC Handelsblad  http://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/van/2015/juni/06/promiscue-ornaatelfjes-10-1501848

 Jongetje of meisje, we bepaalt dat nu eigenlijk? (2016)  nnid.nl/2015/01/22/jongetje-meisje-wie-bepaalt-dat-eigenlijk/

Vinger aan de Pols / Hoe is het nu? zond op 13 januari 2015 een documentaire uit over het Palestijnse jongetje Hilmi dat na een operatie in Nederland het meisje Heleentje werd en nu, als volwassene, David is. Gastauteurs Tineke Abma en Margriet van Heesch hebben naar de uitzending gekeken. "Er was geen reflectie op het feit dat ook huidige technieken op langere termijn gevolgen kunnen hebben die we niet kunnen overzien. En als technieken nu beter zijn dan toen, is dat dan juist geen reden om te wachten met de chirurgische ingrepen zoals aanleg van een vagina of penis? Tegen de tijd dat een kind seksueel actief wordt, is de techniek immers nog verder verbeterd, en kan het kind zelf meebeslissen."

MA THESIS SUPERVISION 

2019-2020: Fiona Agnew, Fai Aldhukair, Jady Ann Dijksteel, Jamie Groeneveld, Joe-hani Kairouz, Else Kappenberg Isaure Schlumberger, Eryk Mikusek-Le and Britt Vonk.

2018-2019: Niall Kirrane, Reece Boulton, Anna Sanchez, Melissa Singh, Ypek Yerhusan, Esther Verrips, Jamie Groeneveld, Erna van Burik and Inse de Wit.

2008-2018:  Melissa Evora, Jordis Sprengler, Katie Thompson, Florentine Wellen, Melissa Koeiman, Natasha Slater, Adar Zehavi, Tom Devroye, Anne Toppen, Rene Kaiser, Jade Williams, Rachel Lewis, Tyler Eldred, Maria Wozniak, Marie-Louise Wijne, Myra Bosman, Anissa Gabelmann, Mariette Wendrich, Carry Hergaarden, Sandra Burly, Gail Zuckerwise, Daryo Stamato, Sander Dekker, Rose Bishop, Gizem Gerdan, Zoe McCluskey, Emma Davidson, Melissa Evora, Alice Kim, Fernanda Martinelli Sobreira, Ruth Eyles, Leonie Gijsen, Vera Boesten, Nadine Knulst, Sebastiaan Matulewicz, Karen Vuijsters, Carlos Alvarez, Sarita Coutinho, Maryam Holton, Stefan Bijkerk, Hessel Ras, Daryo Gregory, Lindsay van Clief, Penfold Kowalski, Yuki-no Osawa, Joyce Ong, Hélène Guillaume, Anne Heeremans, Evi Rooijakkers, Anne-Sophie Ponsot and Sjuul Daamen, Claire den Oudsten, Stela Breganovic, Rachel Lewis, Mark Bartkiewicz, Sandra Palestine Burly, Jen Cline, Phil van Son, Sabine Bastiaans, Claire den Oudsten, Mensje van Puffelen, Mai Groenevelt, Laura Palacios Astorquiza and Tim Schoemaker.

Stay with the Trouble of Racism, Sexism and Classism (2016-now)

How to stay with the trouble of sexism, racism and classism? In her Classic first book 'Gender Trouble' (1990) American philosopher Judith Butler asked what the best way to trouble the heteronormative could be. American Philosopher Donna Haraway (2010) advised to indeed "stay with the trouble" and in 2016 published the book “Staying with the Trouble”. Their rebellious proposals for making trouble and sticking to it, could both be explained as an un-going and open-ended critical analysis of categories such as Gender and also Race, Sexuality and Class. The study of discursive categories of identification is central to understanding the mechanisms of power and discourse that create the other, the abject and the intelligible, and subsequent injustice and inequalities in contemporary society. Our challenge, then, will be how to stay with the trouble of racism, sexism and classism. To explore this question, we will study contributions from the sociological fields of migration and ethnic studies, critical race studies, gender, queer and sexuality studies and contemporary philosophy. We will examine the differentiation of certain kinds of sexualities, ethnicities and socio-economic positions and how discourses discipline our possibilities of identification and agency. How do we come to know race? How do we come to know sexuality? How do we come to know class? How is it all entangled? Then, we will look into the ways how the use of these categories produces and legitimizes social inequality at an institutional level and in our lived experiences. At the institutional level, divisions of race, class and sexuality will be studied as sites through which power is exercised, privileges are conferred, and disciplining sanctions are imposed.

https://coursecatalogue.uva.nl/xmlpages/page/2020-2021-en/search-course/course/81629

Love is a Bitch!: Romance, Sexuality and Desire in Popular Culture

"Love is a Bitch!" In this course, we will study how romance, sexuality and desire are framed in popular culture and how this influences our lived experiences. How to understand Miley Cyrus singing about a wrecking ball? How do romantic comedies influence our expectations on marriage? How is love framed in  Game of Thrones?  Is developing a crush on a movie star real love? We will look closely at how romantic love is socially constructed, transnationally, globally and locally. How to understand structural patterns and agency when it comes to matters of the hearth and sexual desire? Our sociological methods will be to gather both empirical and theoretical data to critically analyze the social order of romantic love. Pierre Bourdieu meets  Nikki Minaj. Michel Foucault is acquainted with Tinder, Chat Roulette and "All the Single Ladies". Judith Butler watches Ru Paul on Netflix. How are Romance, love, and desire narrated in pop/rap songs, movies, Netflix, poetry, literature, and modern art?Topics will be, amongst others and in random order: popular culture, sex, romance, desire, falling in love, heartache, gender, double sexual standard, rape myths, dating culture, feminism, gender, queer, sex education, lgbtqi, slut shaming, sexual capital, marriage, Hollywood, camp. 

https://coursecatalogue.uva.nl/xmlpages/page/2020-2021-en/search-course/course/82245

Queer Interruptions 

Students are invited to Join me to stand on the shoulders of giants, sociologists, theorists, feminists, lovers, warriors, poets mermaids, bohemians,, butches, queens and queers. Their names?  Sara Ahmed, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, Audrey Lorde, Bruno Latour, Gayatri Spivak, Eve Kosovsky Sedgwick, Monique Wittig, Iain Morland, Morgan Carpenter, Leslie Feinberg, Rosalind Gill, Nancy Tuana and Joan Fujimura. While standing there, wind in our hair and a bird’s eye view of the world, I would like to peer in the distance to see how the gender binary is analyzed in various classic and recent academic publications. Maybe we need binoculars too to zoom in on how dominant and marginalized knowledge(s) on gender influence our lived experiences? Let’s wonder about how assumptions on masculinity and femininity produce the normative and the non-normative. Let’s contemplate about how the non-binary, queer, drag, transgender and intersex experiences are erased in the heterosexual matrix. And while we here high up above on their shoulders, let’s whisper in their ears and ask them about post-feminism, Metoo, dating culture, consumerism, capitalist surveillance, resistance, subversion, and gain new perspectives on our worlds, our gender, sexuality  and bodies. Other topocs of intewrst are: romance, desire, falling in love, heartache, gender, popular culture, double sexual standard, rape myths, metoo, consumerism, sex education, LGTBQI movement,  slut shaming,  sexual capital, marriage, movies, literature, poetry, pop culture and subcultures.

https://coursecatalogue.uva.nl/xmlpages/page/2020-2021-en/search-course/course/81765

Introduction to Sociology

Sociology is the study of social life, the study of structures and disruptions of human behavior and its causes and its consequences. It is the scientific and scholarly study of social institutions, patterns of social relationships, interaction, collective behavior and a critical analysis of the acceptance of social order and change. In this introductory course, the lecturers and tutors will introduce the students to current societal issue and how to interpret or explain them from a sociological perspective. Sociology is an empirical social science: it aims to systematically study social reality, using a range of theories and methods to answer sociological questions. In the lectures, main sociological themes and insights regarding these themes will be addressed. Examples of these themes are social inequality, class, race and gender ideologies or mobilization. There will be specific attention to the Netherlands and the United States, but always from a global and cross-cultural perspective. For this, we aim to benefit from the international, transnational and migratory experiences of our students. 

https://coursecatalogue.uva.nl/xmlpages/page/2020-2021-en/search-course/course/82057

Sociological Craftsmanship: Academic Habitus

In the first part of the course “Academic habitus and sociological crafts(wo)manship I”, first year students of Sociology will be introduced to basic useful tools to study. Students are given the opportunity become confident and independent students of sociology. During the whole first semester, students will be handed specific strategies and insights for how to listen, read, study, question and speak in academia. In the seminars these scholarly skills are practiced together and with the tutors. 

https://coursecatalogue.uva.nl/xmlpages/page/2020-2021-en/search-course/course/82315

Sociological Craftsmanship: Academic Writing

How to Research, Puzzle and Write in Academia: We will go in-depth into specific strategies and skills for searching and reading academic and scholarly texts, and how to engage with them in your own writing. Students will practice how to find academic readings on their sociological topic of choice, and how to understand, compare, analyze and write about that. Students will learn how to quote, paraphrase and especially how to avoid plagiarism and fraud. Students will practice how to make a sociological puzzle, formulate research questions, write an annotated bibliography, interpret academic texts and compare and translate them into their own first year paper. Students will learn how to comprehend academic and theoretical work and how to critically inform one’s own thinking and intellectual development in writing. Other necessary skills which will be practiced again during Craftsmanship II are time management, searching library catalogues and referencing (APA) in combination with quoting and paraphrasing and all the while avoid plagiarism and fraud.

https://coursecatalogue.uva.nl/xmlpages/page/2020-2021-en/search-course/course/82313

Courses in the past: 

Theorizing Gender (2008-2014)

In the eyes of contemporary post-modern theorists, the search for ‘Universal Truth’ and ‘Certainty’ is a misguided effort because the social realm is characterized by fragmentation, diversity and difference. Post-modern theorists such as Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Joan Fujimura and Donna Haraway stress the importance of articulating marginalized voices and unauthorized knowledges. They summarily reject the notion that there is one correct way of viewing the world, without glossing over the reality and social significance of collective identities and existing power structures. How do categories of analysis such as gender, sexuality, and agency intersect and overlap in contemporary society and contemporary theory? This MA course will provide an overview of gender theories as they have unfolded during the last century, with a special focus on contemporary gender theories. In doing so we will study and recognize the tensions between theorizing that relies on broad intellectual streams of thought -- psychoanalysis, (post)colonial historiography and poststructuralism -- and the social realm, the experiences of everyday life. We will explore current meanings of concepts like post modernity and identity, intersectionality, fragmented identities, body and agency.

Dance Me To The End of Love: An Epistemology of Romance (2008-2014)

Department of Humanities (Literature and Languages) University of Amsterdam
The stories we tell each other in literature, in film, music lyrics, newspaper articles, jokes, the law, medical and scientific narratives show us how love is negotiated through ideologies (or cultural scripts) on sex, gender and sexuality.  Cultural scripts are dominant narratives that circulate, are being told and retold that give some blueprint on how romantic love should be experienced.  By shaping possible ways in which love can be experienced, the impossible is being defined.
In this course we will look closely at love narratives cross-culturally and from all possible genres in literature, film, theatre, poetry, art and even music lyrics. Our task will be to evaluate how critical theories deconstruct dominant and or subversive structures of how to love.  To reach more understanding, we will look at the structuring elements of love narratives in terms of the suggested theories, as well as create our own.We shall read novels, poetry, look at films and analyze the ideologies of how love is narrated along or against the lines of dominant assumptions on sex,gender and sexuality as well as intersections with ethnicity,"race",religion, age, class, health and citizenship.

Introduction to Sexual Studies (2008-2011)

Gruaduate School for Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam
The BA course offers an overview of sexual sciences including moral theology, biology, history, sociology, gender studies and cultural analysis, as well as perspectives on hetero- and homosexuality, auto-eroticism and so-called paraphilia such as sadomasochism, pedophiliaand transsexuality. The focus of thecourse will be on the histories of Europeansexual cultures and sciences.

Social Theories of Sexuality (2009-2011)

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Amsterdam
This BA course aims at an understanding of modern Western sexuality as the historical outcomeof competing discourses on culture, gender and pleasure (versus the notion of sex as a natural instinct). The focus is on cultural perspectives on sex. The classic texts of Plato, Marquis de Sade, Sigmund Freud and Michel Foucault will be read and discussed in class. Foucault's The History of Sexuality. Vol. 1 (1976) is the main example of the historical approach that will serve as a starting point for further readings on sexual theories and practices,with a focus of the development of Western sexual cultures since the sexual revolution of the 1960's.

Social and Cultural Studies of Sexuality (2009-2010)

Gruaduate School for Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam
This interdisciplinary MA course offers an introduction to sexuality studies from a social science perspective. The various disciplines of the social sciences will be discussed, partly based on important monographs ( history, sociology, anthropology, political sciences). Wewillfurther engage in contemporary debates about sexuality, including queer theory, based ona range of sources. Weroughly start fromthe scholarlyturn that has occurred in the late 1970s in the study of sexuality, with the theory generally known as 'social construction of sexuality'. Whereas previously sexuality used to be studied mainly within the biomedical paradigm of health and disease, the social sciences surveyed sexual behaviour or studied marginal social groups (prostitutes, homosexuals). The social construction of sexuality, instead, provides a methodology to analyze the dynamics between  culture and sexual performance in order to understandwhat people do and don't do andwhyso. Themes will besexual politics, gender,  age, class, religion, pleasure and desire, mainly from a cross-cultural perspective.
2009-2010