The Cross-Disciplinary Invention of Sexuality: Sexual Science Beyond the Medical, 1890-1940. (360G-Wellcome-106654_Z_14_Z)
This project represents a fundamental rethinking of the emergence of the scientific study of human sexuality in the c19th and reconsiders how modern understandings of sexuality were constructed. We critique the hitherto dominant assumption that 'sexology' existed as a clearly understood and primarily medical field of knowledge. We present a new account of the rise of a cross-disciplinary 'sexual science' driven by dissatisfaction with exclusively medical approaches. From the 1890s, medical docto rs argued that a properly scientific understanding of sexuality required input from additional areas of knowledge (e.g. anthropology, sociology, history, literature). This project offers the first full investigation of the conceptual and cultural factors driving the evolution of a cross-disciplinary sexual science: the desire to understand the global variety of sexual behaviour; an interest in historical and cultural variation; and a new focus on the 'normal' and 'healthy' alongside the 'path ological' and 'abnormal'. We examine the ways in which these studies challenged biological explanations of sexuality, raising questions about the 'nature/nurture' divide, and brought imperially-shaped debates about race, the primitive, civilization and degeneration into the heart of sexual science. Thus the project sheds new light on the evolution of a range of categories that are central to understandings of human behaviour in the modern world. Interdisciplinary collaborations will produce m onographs, journal issues and edited collections. A stakeholder-led engagement programme will raise broader questions about the relation between medical and non-medical forms of knowledge in the past and present to address contemporary challenges surrounding sexual health and wellbeing.
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Grant Details
Amount Awarded | 420315 |
Applicant Surname | Fisher |
Approval Committee | Humanities and Social Science Selection Panel |
Award Date | 2015-01-20T00:00:00+00:00 |
Financial Year | 2014/15 |
Grant Programme: Title | Investigator Award in H&SS |
Internal ID | 106654/Z/14/Z |
Lead Applicant | Prof Kate Fisher |
Partnership Value | 420315 |
Planned Dates: End Date | 2023-06-30T00:00:00+00:00 |
Planned Dates: Start Date | 2015-09-01T00:00:00+00:00 |
Recipient Org: Country | United Kingdom |
Region | South West |