On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey’s graduation from Bowdoin College, Bowdoin is hosting a symposium to examine the legacy of the renowned sexual scientist, as well as the formative influence that European sexologists had on Kinsey’s work. The symposium draws together an interdisciplinary group of scholars—historians of sexuality, political scientists, literary scholars, and researchers in gender & sexuality studies—to discuss the ideas and forces that shaped Kinsey’s work and the impact that Kinsey’s studies of human sexuality had on the ways we think and talk about sex, both in the United States and abroad.
On Thursday evening, May 5, Annette Timm, editor of the Journal of the History of Sexuality, and associate professor of history at the University of Calgary, will give a keynote talk on “”Kinsey’s German Connection and the Origins of Thinking about Transsexuality in the US.” The lecture is from 7:30-8:30 p.m. in Moulton Union’s Main Lounge.
The following day, May 6, three panels will take place in Lancaster Lounge, in Moulton Union. The symposium is open to the public.
Schedule of panel presentations:
Panel I—”Kinsey Institute and the Archive,”
9:30-11:30 a.m.
Speakers: Donna Drucker, Guest Professor, Technische Universitat, Darmstadt, Germany; Lisa Sigel, Associate Professor of History, DePaul University; Liana Zhou, Director of Library and Archives, Kinsey Institute at Indiana University
Moderator: Marilyn Reizbaum, Harrison King McCann Professor of English and Co-Director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program, Bowdoin College
Panel II—“Kinsey and the Politics of Sexuality.” 1:00-2:30 p.m.
Speakers: Michael Pettit, Associate Professor of Psychology and Science and Technology Studies, York University; Whitney Strub, Associate Professor and Director of Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University
Moderator: David Hecht, Assistant Professor of History, Bowdoin College
Panel III—”Sexology and Freud.” 3:00-4:30 p.m.
Speakers: Dagmar Herzog, Distinguished Professor of History and Daniel Rose Faculty Scholar, City University of New York; Robert Tobin, Henry J. Leir Chair in Language, Literature and Culture, Clark University
Moderator: Jill Smith, John S. Osterweis Associate Professor of German, Bowdoin College
For more information, contact the Office of Events and Summer Programs at events@bowdoin.edu or 207-725-3433. Sponsored by the Office of the Dean for Academic Affairs, the German and History Departments, and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program.
