A two-day workshop of the International Network for Sexual Ethics and Politics – INSEP Hosted by CEVI – Centre for Ethics and Value Inquiry Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University (Web)

Time: 22-23 February 2016
Venue: Ghent University, Belgium
Proposals due: 15 November 2015

Earlier this year Laura Kipnis caused a controversy with her article on ‘sexual paranoia’ in the academy in which she commented on university policies regulating student-faculty sexual relationships. Some called her intervention a melodrama – melodramatic or not, ensuing events did take on epic proportions. She met with vehement opposition and was even under investigation from her own university. Discussions on social media quickly widened to encompass feminism/postfeminism controversies.

Sex in the academy has always been a controversial issue – not only between faculty and students, but within the student population as well. Plenty are the studies documenting the alleged rise of a student hook-up culture and the highly sexualized liminal zone of student life.

Sex and the academy is not without controversies either. Researching and teaching sex has often generated heated debate. To name but a few examples: from Kinsey’s research and ‘marriage course’ in the 1940ies and -50ies; over the impact of the ‘second sexual revolution’ in the 1960ies and -70ies; the rise of gender studies, women’s studies and feminist research, lesbian and gay studies and programs in the late 1970ies and -80ies, the burgeoning of queer & LGBTI studies in the 1990ies … read more (PDF)