Xth World Conference in Sexuality Studies at Dublin City University (17/20 June 2015)

The tenth biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society (IASSCS) is entitled “Literacies and Sexualities in Cultural, Fictional, Real, and Virtual Worlds” and will take place from 17 to 20 June 2015 in Dublin City University. If literacy is the ability to read, write and make some sense of life and existence, sexual literacy is the ability to make some sense of the symbol systems relevant to the understanding and use of the concepts of sexuality, and of its inextricable intertwining with gender and all other accepted, oppressed and excluded identities. Delegates will elaborate on the wide gamut of hermeneutical discourses of sexuality. All these are different means of making sense of sexuality and of gender, in sites from classrooms to streets, from stages to senates. Up to 300 speakers in Social Sciences, Humanities and Human Rights Advocacy will meet for a 3 day event, during which, along with papers and presentations, there will be 5 Plenaries, 7 Workshops, Roundtables and a full artistic programme. The conference is followed by a Summer School. 

IASSCS has consolidated a solid network of scholars and advocates engaged in the social and cultural study of sexuality around the globe. Conference participants have represented diverse disciplines including anthropology, history, sociology, health policy, and the humanities, as well as from cultural and gender studies. Furthermore, the network has brought together scholars, researchers, policy makers and activists, with substantial participation from the global south. These biennial conferences serve as a significant venue in the creation and strengthening of sexuality networks and coalitions across disciplines, professions and regions. More than 40 countries are represented at the DCU event.

Speakers include: Dr Geoffrey Shannon, Special Rapporteur on Child Protection to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs; Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Desmond Tutu Fellow, Founder of Cassava Republic Press, Nigeria; Prof. Nivedita Menon, Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi; Prof. Michael Kimmel, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities; Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International in Ireland; Senator David Norris, Joycean scholar, independent Senator, and gay and civil rights activist; Panti Bliss, Drag Queen, gender discombobulist and Cabaret performer.