Academic Programme Dates:

Sunday 1 July - Thursday 26 July, 2012

The opening will take place on Sunday afternoon on 1 July, 2012. The closing will take place Thursday evening on 26 July, 2012. 

The course will last four weeks, starting 2 July and ending 26 July. The modules are from 9:30 to 15:30, Monday through Thursday. Fridays are reserved for literature reading, individual research activities, and travel. Afternoon modules during Week 2 & 3 are for all students (both Track 1 & 2).  In the afternoon during week 2 and 3, the programme consists of two tracks. 

Each week a different instructor leads a module on her or his subject. All participants take the morning module.

• For the afternoon sessions, students can select Track 1 (selected topics in sexuality, organised into week-length modules), or
• Track 2, for participants who want to further conceptualize, develop and refine a "work in progress" proposal that reflects a sexuality and health issue and which is being pursued for purposes of degree completion (PhD or Masters) or programmatic support in the private or public sector.

Class schedule

Please see below for the most up to date schedule.

Sexuality, Society, and Culture: An Introduction

Niko Besnier

Professional Identity and Values Clarification

Goals: 

To determine professional identity and goals of working in sexuality field and distinguish them from personal identity and goals;

To develop effective and appropriate presentation skills as a professional working in the sexuality field; 

To develop the skills with which to provide more effective, nonjudgmental communication in professional public health care settings about human sexuality. 

Objectives:

1)  To gain insight of one’s professional goals and identity in the sexuality field and understand the difference between personal and professional goals and identities;

2) To identify the various strategies and approaches to professional            presentation in public settings;

2) To gain insight of personal and professional attitudes, values and           beliefs regarding sexuality;

2)  To become familiar with the diversity of sexual values and beliefs          and broad range of viewpoints;

3)   To become more aware of the cultural contexts for addressing   sexuality issues with different populations; and

4)  Be aware of ineffective, judgmental communications/attitudes and their impact and ramifications for personal and professional relationships and work

This course focuses on a range of sexuality topics and issues, and incorporates a variety of pedagogical techniques in the classroom with which to achieve its goals and objectives, including class presentations by lecturer, interactive exercises focusing on values clarification, and small and large group discussions.  

Sex and the City

University of Amsterdam lecturers

Seminar in Proposal Development (Track 2)

This seminar will provide information and skills in the art of proposal development .  It will be relevant to those who are involved either in the process of preparing or conceptualizing a proposal that focuses and addresses a specific sexuality topic or issue.   The proposal can take the form of a grant proposal seeking to obtain support for programmatic activities in an organizational setting OR could take the form of a more traditional research proposal required to complete a   PhD or Masters degree program OR  a proposal seeking support for a research initiative or project relating to sexuality. 

The seminar will include individual presentations prepared by the participants and will include mini-lectures by the seminar leader and group discussions on sexuality issues relevant to the presentations.  More specifically, participants will be expected to provide a brief 10-15 minute presentation of their research project/interest, followed by a group discussion facilitated by the seminar leader. 

Discussions will be based on the daily assigned readings, organized by sexuality topic, issue, and/or area of programmatic/ research interest of the participants.  Each participant is expected to complete all assigned readings and participate in group discussions, which will also focus on the challenges and issues that participants are addressing in their work as well as obstacles they are confronting in the process of proposal development and completion.

While the seminar will include where applicable, discussions of methodological approaches relevant to participants’ proposal development, this is NOT a methodology course in sexuality research, nor will it focus on advanced methodological approaches to sexuality research issues.   

Diane di Mauro

The Global Politics of the Sex Trade

Kamala Kempado

Sex work (prostitution) is a subject that is not always associated with studies of sexuality, yet poses some profound questions to this field of study. It asks us to think about the ways in which sexuality is linked to the global economy, to women’s income-generating strategies, and to the exercise of sexual rights and freedoms, as well as to racialized and ethnicized inequalities, public health matters, and constructions of citizenship. The diversity of arrangements globally speak to a wider range of social, legal, and cultural conditions that shape “sex work” and this course addresses two important aspects. On the one hand it takes a look at the way prostitution has been defined, regulated and practiced in different parts of the world, with particular attention for debates around sex tourism and HIV-prevention. On the other, it reviews the main debates surrounding cross-border movements that underpin a global sex trade, tracing the development of discourses on “sex trafficking.” Through foregrounding migrant and sex worker’s rights struggles and perspectives, the course also reflects upon how researchers, policy-makers, and activists can effectively intervene in the debates.

Men, Manhood, Masculinities (Track 1)

Graeme Reid

In this course, male bodies, sexualities and social interactions will provide the basis for understanding the cultural and historic constructions of masculinity. We will examine multiple masculinities and explore the relationship between hegemonic, non-hegemonic and subordinate masculinities.

Masculinity, like ‘whiteness’ has for a long time been a relatively opaque social category, receiving little attention as a focus of study in its own right. But social scientific scholarship on men and masculinities has grown exponentially within the past few decades. At one level, this is born of the recognition that early feminist and gender theory focused almost exclusively (and for obvious political reasons) on the position and experience of women. Men, except where they were situated as part of the problem (the abuser, the oppressor, the patriarch), were neither the object nor the subject of study.

‘Men and masculinity’ has subsequently become the subject of expanded theorization. Recent theoretical developments have challenged stereotypes by showing how myriad masculinities are produced within specific historic and cultural domains. This has replaced monolithic notions of men’s power by demonstrating that men wield and access power differently, depending on their racial, class and sexual locations.

Sexuality in Art and Media

Robert Sember

Sexuality and gender theorists and researchers observe that behaviours often precede identity. That is, identity is a function of how we make sense of experience. Pictures, songs, fashion items and countless other art and media works are intimately involved in this process. We need only think of how particular pictures or stories provoke our desires and in doing so signal something about our identities.

Art and media also teach us about cultural, ideological, psychological and political notions of sexuality and gender, which is to say they can produce and control power.  The demands for visibility on the part of sexual minorities and the censoring of some art and media are attempts to use or control these powers.

In our time together, we will move freely between the subjective and political dimensions of these processes under the guidance of theories of gender performativity, feminist and queer theories, post-colonial theory, and Marxist definitions of ideology. Each defines the interaction between art and sexuality differently and, consequently, implies different strategies for subverting or redirecting oppressive gender and sexuality regimes. 

We will explore these differences in relation to a wide range of sexuality and gender-related art and media drawn from diverse historical periods and cultural contexts. Most important, however, will be our discussions of the relevance of these strategies to our own lives, communities and work in the fields of health, education, research, and advocacy.

Sexuality & Religion (Track 1)

David Bos

By nature, humans are able to frequently and thoroughly enjoy sex. Yet – or is precisely because of that? – in many cultures, sex is the subject of concern, suspicion or even aversion. Does that have something to do with religion? If so, why then do religions have hang-ups about sex? And do all religions have them in an equal manner? In the past as much as in the present, down here as much as up there, and among ‘lay people’ as much as among people for whom religion is a full day’s work? This course aims at identifying such differences between and within religions. The focus will be on Buddhism, Islam and – notably, because it seems to be the most “anti-sexual” religion – Christianity. We will look into the origins and evolution of the ideal of sexual abstinence, and the concessions that have been made to it, such as allowing monogamous heterosexuality aimed at family formation. But we will also discuss various ways of dealing with sex outside marriage, between same-sex partners, or at a charge. And we will try to find out why sexual morality functions as a religious (or cultural) identity marker.