Towards a Global History of Sexual Science, 1880–1950
A Leslie Center Humanities Institute at Dartmouth College
July 1—August 17, 2013
The Institute led by Douglas Haynes (History) and Veronika Fuechtner (German Studies) examined the transnational history of sexological ideas and practices as they circulated between Europe/North America and Asia, Africa and Latin America. Over the seven weeks of the seminar, participants addressed such issues as the efforts by Western sexologists to disseminate their views in non-European regions; the emergence of local advocacy of sexual science; the role of sexual science in constituting "modern" sexualities; the encounter between indigenous conceptions of sexuality and sexological ideas; the transformation of sexology in Asian/African/Latin American contexts; the connection between sexology and birth control outside of Europe/North America; Orientalism and sexology; the connection between sexology and eugenics in Asian/African/Latin American contexts; sexology, nationalism and anti-colonialism; Orientalism and sexology; as well as other relevant topics. The majority of participants remained in residence over the summer and participated in a twice-weekly seminar and related events. A smaller set of outside scholars gave papers during individual sessions of the seminar. The goal of the Institute is to promote exchanges between scholars working on different regions of the world and in different disciplines as well as to produce an edited volume. The Institute is open to many disciplines, including literature and culture, religion, and other humanities as well as historians, historians of science, and anthropologists.