Interdisciplinary Lecture Series

The Kinsey Institute sponsors a series of interdisciplinary seminars for Indiana University faculty and graduate students. The purpose of the seminar series is to address topics that relate to sexuality and lend themselves to interdisciplinary discussion. A presentation is followed by comments from one or two invited discussants from different disciplines, then open for general discussion.

Seminars are held in The Kinsey Institute Conference Room, Morrison Hall. Those attending should take the stairs or elevator to the third-floor reception area. You are welcome to bring your lunch for the noon talks.

All seminars are held in Morrison Hall 313, 12 - 1 pm, unless otherwise noted.

Fall 2008

Friday, December 5, 4 pm
“Overcoming Barriers to Interventions for Sexual Health in Cancer patients”
Dr. Leslie Schover, U. of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Dr. Schover is a leading researcher on the impact of cancer treatment on sexual function and relationships, fertility and attitudes to childbearing.

Wednesday, October 1, 12-1:30 pm
Friends of the Kinsey Institute Graduate Student Grantees Research Panel - Part II
The following papers will be presented by four emerging scholars who are among the 2007 and 2008 recipients of sexuality research grants** from the Friends of The Kinsey Institute.

Growing up LGBT in Indiana
Christopher Fisher, Applied Health Science, School of HPER

Golden Girls: What About Safer Sex, Phase 1
Rose Hartzell, Applied Health Science, School of HPER

Arousing Suspicions: Contemporary Anti-Pornography Feminism and the Politics of Style
Bradley Lane, Gender Studies

Individual variation in female mating choices: relating yolk hormones to extra-pair behavior in a female songbird
Kristal Cain, Biology, Program in Ecology, Evolution & Behavior

Light refreshments will be served. Email kinsey@Indiana.edu or call 855-7686 for more information.

** The deadline for 2008-09 grants is also October 1. Application information at http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/student_grants.html

Wednesday, October 15th, 12-1 pm
Dr. Kinsey's Librarian - Rediscovering a Lesbian Pioneer
Professor Joanne Passet

Professor Joanne Passet is the author of a new biography - Sex Variant Woman: The Life of Jeannette Edward Foster. In 1948, Jeannette Edward Foster became the first librarian at KI's precursor, the Institute for Sex Research, and contributed to Dr. Kinsey's work on homosexuality. In 1956, she published Sex Variant Women in Literature, a full-length bibliography cataloguing hundreds of female same-sex relationships in literature.

Dr. Passet is a Professor of History at Indiana University East, and has also taught in the School of Library and Information Science and the Women's and Gender Studies Program. She is the author of several books on American women's history and topics in library science.

Monday, November 17, 12-1 pm
From Cynips to the Cerebral Cortex: An Intellectual History of Alfred Kinsey
Donna Drucker, Ph.D., Indiana University, Department of History

Donna Drucker will present her dissertation thesis, which addresses Kinsey’s methods and influences, from his gall wasp work through both Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953):

While many scholars have studied Alfred Kinsey’s two major works on human sexuality, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), few have examined his methods and influences from his gall wasp work through both volumes. I examine the development of Kinsey's research methods and the ways that they changed between the Male and Female volumes. Kinsey’s use of statistical, social science, and evolutionary science materials, in addition to his original sex research data, reveals the broad scope of his reading and of the diverse approaches he integrated into his studies. He also explored the possible applications to human sexual behavior of the experimental hypotheses of then-leading psycho-biologists, endocrinologists, and neurologists. I argue that Kinsey became embedded in the broader American intelligentsia in the mid-twentieth century through his research and methodological development. I conclude that charting the methods and influences of Kinsey’s research enhances understandings of twentieth-century culture and sciences and shows the interdisciplinarity of the life and human sciences.