Studies in Sexualities (L. Huffer & M. Moon, J. Goldberg)

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Studies in Sexualities takes as its focus the multiple ways in which sexuality is experienced, conceptualized, and theorized. It supports and is supported by the activities of the Office of LGBT Life and the superb resources of the Emory libraries. Like Women’s Studies, which takes gender as its crucial experiential and analytic category, Studies in Sexualities examines sexuality, recognizing that it always is inflected with and shaped by its intersections with categories of race, class, and gender, as well as geography and history. Such inquiries draw upon feminist analysis as well as the contributions of lesbian, gay, transgender and transexual studies as well as queer theory (an enterprise sometimes abbreviated as LBGQT). Hence, Studies in Sexualities is a multidisciplinary enterprise drawing upon a faculty with expertise in a range of humanistic, social scientific, health sciences and religious disciplines, among others. Through the Department of Women’s Studies it offers with regularity an introductory course in Studies in Sexualities that highlights the many methods and objects of inquiry in the field, with special emphasis on the resources available at Emory. In addition to course offerings that vary from semester to semester, it also sponsors ongoing lecture series, colloquia, and seminars. In Fall 2007, the main event was a day-long Foucault Workshop that drew on Emory faculty and graduate student presentations from a range of departments, including Comparative Literature, English, ILA, Religion, and Women’s Studies. In Spring 2008, a series of speakers offered lectures, seminars and workshops with a focus on questions of race and sexuality. In 2008-09, we launch a series on “Other Americas” that will take as its focus aspects of sexuality in non-mainstream American venues, in the fall, emphasizing Native American and Latino cultural sites, in the spring African American, African and Asian diasporic locales.

Accomplishments in academic year 2007-2008

The Studies in Sexualities Program, directed by Michael Moon, Lynne Huffer, and Jonathan Goldberg, concluded a long list of activities:

• In November 2007, organized a conference on Foucault that drew an audience of over 100.
• April 3rd  Horace Griffin, from General Theological seminary, and author of Their Own Receive The Not: African American Lesbians and Gays in Black Churches, delivered a lecture.
• April 17th Catherine Smith, Associate Professor, Sturm College of Law, University of Denver, spoke on “Gay Rights, Civil Rights, and the Axis of (In)Equality,” (co-sponsored by the Feminist Legal Theory Project and the James Weldon Johnson Institute).
• April 18th Jennifer Holladay, senior adviser for strategic affairs at the Southern Poverty Law Center, hosted an informal discussion co-sponsored by the ILA around the topic, “Domestic Disturbance: Extremism and Bigotry in 21st Century America.”
• Held an organizing dinner meeting for the 20 or so faculty members who have affiliated with Studies in Sexualities to plan for events for next year, which will be housed under the rubric of “Other Americas,” and will feature talks and a conference organized by José Quiroga (Spanish) and Craig Womack (English) in the fall 2008 semester on Native American and Latino cultures and spring 2009 talks by Cathy Cohen and Robert Reid-Pharr in African-American contexts, among others.
• Instituted an introductory course in Studies in Sexualities offered by Women's Studies, that, starting in fall 2008, as organized by Jonathan Goldberg, includes sessions run by Emory faculty from a number of fields and departments.
• Studies in Sexualities will also be assisting the Office of LGBT Life in providing funds for the essay prize contest and the Pride Banquet.
• Studies in Sexualities also offered support for a Queer Japan event in April and the Emilia Navarro Memorial Lecture in the Spanish and Portuguese Department.