HIST 399
WINTER 2010
CRN 25770

SEXUAL SCIENCE, SEXUAL POLITICS

THIS SYLLABUS IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

Professor Ellen Herman
Department of History
University of Oregon

Monday, Wednesday, 10:00 - 11:20 am
class location: 175 Lillis
office: 321 McKenzie Hall
phone: 346-3118
e-mail: eherman@uoregon.edu
office hours: TBA

Brief Description

This new course is sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Center and the Robert F. and Evelyn Nelson Wulf Professorship in the Humanities. Its goal is to offer historical and ethical perspectives on sexual science, sexual politics, and the relationship between them in the modern west and especially in the United States. When and why did theorists and researchers begin to consider human sexual behavior and identity as legitimate subjects of scientific inquiry and targets of both biomedical and psychological intervention? What role has science played in distinguishing between sexual normality and abnormality and how have these value-laden categories been structured by race, class, and age as well as gender and sexual orientation? What have scientific debates about sexuality had to do with the politics of health and reproduction, the definitions of marriage and motherhood, and the rights of citizens and immigrants? Why should the state and policymakers pay special attention to scientific findings about sex or even care about sex at all? This course sets out to explore these questions in the expectation that the intersection of sexual science and sexual politics will provide novel insights into the history of personal experience, collective consciousness, and public decision-making.

We will devote the first four weeks of the term to a historical survey of modern sexual science. We will consider the origins of sexology, the pioneers of sex research, and their vision for science and society. We will explore the relationship between sexual scientists and the people and populations they studied. We will inquire about the influence of sexual science on modern ideologies that emphasized the centrality of sexual identity and intimacy to individual happiness, family stability, and civic progress.

During the remainder of the term, we will consider case studies that reveal the ethical dimensions and dilemmas of sexual science and illustrate its relationship to policy debates and the state. One week will feature the work of a visiting scholar, Marga Vicedo, a historian and philosopher of science who is an authority on maternal instinct. Vicedo will participate in our class during the week of February 22, 2010. We will also have the opportunity to talk with Janice Irvine, Susan Reverby, and Margot Canaday by means of two-way videoconferencing.

Writing Requirements

There will be three graded assignments during the term: 1) a group presentation, 2) an individual essay of 8-10 pages linked to the group theme, and 3) a take-home final exam.

1) On the first day of class, each student will sign up to participate in one of the following interest groups.

• group 1: History of Sexology: Founding Figures and Fantastic Findings

• group 2: History of Sexual Subjectivities: Inversions, Perversions, Orientations, Bodies, Brains, and Behaviors
  

• group 3: Ethics and Politics: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture in Sexual Science

• group 4: Ethics and Politics: Gender in Sexual Science

These groups will meet periodically during class time (and it's a good idea to meet outside of class as well) to prepare a presentation of approximately 30 minutes in length. Group presentations will take place during the ninth week of the term.

2) Each group member will also be responsible for an individually-authored essay, 8-10 pages in length. It must be on a specific topic related to the group theme and based on selected primary sources. A list of sample topics can be found here. Students are expected to turn in a provisional statement about their paper topic by Wednesday, January 20, 2010. The individual essays will be due at the beginning of week 9, on Monday, March 1, 2010, before class.

3) The final take-home exam will will be an essay-writing exercise designed to synthesize the readings and subjects covered throughout the term. It will be handed out on Wednesday, March 10, 2010, the final day of class. It will be due on Monday, March 15, 2010 at noon in 321 McKenzie.

Reading Requirements

Lucy Bland and Laura Doan, eds., Sexology Uncensored: The Documents of Sexual Science (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998).

Janice M. Irvine, Disorders of Desire: Sex and Gender in Modern American Sexology (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005).

Susan M. Reverby, Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and Its Legacy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009).

Many of the other readings for this course are article- or chapter-length selections. Some can be found online, linked to the syllabus. Materials with copyright protections can also be found linked to the syllabus. A password is required to access them.

Rules

Academic Honesty
If this course is to be a worthwhile educational experience, your work must be original. Plagiarism and other forms of cheating are very serious infractions and will not be permitted. Students who are uncertain about what plagiarism is, or who have questions about how to cite published, electronic, or other sources should feel free to consult with the instructor. You can also consult the section of my website titled "On Writing," which includes material on plagiarism and citation, and read the UO Student Conduct Code provisions on academic midsconduct.

Lateness Policy
No late assignments will be accepted and no makeup exams will be given. Students who miss deadlines will be given an F for that assignment.

Accommodations
If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, please arrange to see me soon and request that Disability Services send a letter verifying your disability.

Grades

group presentation: 20%
individual essay: 35%
final exam: 35%
preparation and participation: 10%

Calendar

Week 1

Week 2

MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2010: SEXOLOGY PIONEERS AND THEIR IDEAS

Bland and Doan, eds., Sexology Uncensored, General Introduction, parts I-III

Sigmund Freud, "Resistance and Repression" and "The Sexual Life of Human Beings," in Introductory Lectures in Psycho-Analysis (London: The Hogarth Press, 1963), 286-319.

Sigmund Freud, "'Civilized' Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness,"in Sexual Revolution, Jeffrey Escoffier, ed. (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003), 557-576.

Magnus Hirschfeld, "The Development and Scope of Sexology." 1929

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2010: SEXOLOGY AND EUGENICS

Bland and Doan, eds., Sexology Uncensored, parts IV-VI

Wendy Kline, Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), chap 1, "Motherhood, Morality, and the 'Moron': The Emergence of Eugenics in America"

Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement
Please look at the virtual exhibits on marriage laws and sterilization laws.

Governor John Kitzhaber, Proclamation of Human Rights Day, and apology for Oregon's forced sterilization of institutionalized patients, Salem, Oregon, December 2, 2002

"The Lynchburg Story: Eugenic Sterilization in America"

MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2010: MARTIN LUTHER KING HOLIDAY

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2010: THE PROLIFERATION OF SEXUAL SUBJECTS AND THE MULTIPLICATION OF SEXUAL SUBJECTIVITIES

Preliminary statements for individual papers topics due before class

group meetings

Bland and Doan, eds., Sexology Uncensored, part VII-VIII

MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2010: INTERPRETING THE HISTORY OF SEXUAL SCIENCE FROM THE KINSEY ERA TO THE RECENT PAST

Irvine, Disorders of Desire, introduction - chap. 4

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010: INTERPRETING THE HISTORY OF SEXUAL SCIENCE FROM THE KINSEY ERA TO THE RECENT PAST

Irvine, Disorders of Desire, chap. 5 - conclusion

interview with Janice Irvine

Part 2: Ethical and Political Controversies

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2010: THE TUSKEEGEE EXPERIMENT

Jean Heller, "Syphilis Victims in U.S. Study Went Untreated for 40 Years." New York Times, July 26, 1972.

Look at these photographs of the Tuskegee study in the records of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

Remarks by the President in apology for study done in Tuskegee, May 16, 1997

Reverby, Examining Tuskegee

There is a website for Examining Tuskegee that includes photos, study data, a timeline, and other resources.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2010: THE TUSKEEGEE EXPERIMENT

Reverby, Examining Tuskegee

Lundy Braun et al, "Racial Categories in Medical Practice: How Useful Are They?" PLoS Medicine, September 2007.

Interview with Susan Reverby

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2010: SEXUAL IDENTITIES AND COMMUNITIES AT THE DAWN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Lisa Duggan, "The Trials of Alice Mitchell: Sensationalism, Sexology, and the Lesbian Subject in Turn-of-the-Century America," Signs 18 (Summer 1993):791-814.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2010: SEXUAL CATEGORIZATION AND THE AMERICAN STATE

Margot Canday, The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), selections.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2010: WHAT MAKES PEOPLE GAY? WHY DO WE NEED TO KNOW?

Jennifer Terry, "Anxious Slippages between "Us" and "Them": A Brief History of the Scientific Search for Homosexual Bodies," in Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture, Jennifer Terry and Jacqueline Urla, eds. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995), 129-169.

Udo Schuklenk and Michael Ristow, "The Ethics of Research into the Cause(s) of Homosexuality," Journal of Homosexuality 31 (1996):5-30.

Simon LeVay, Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996), chap. 13.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2010: THE STRANGE CAREER OF A PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS

Peter Hegerty, "Homosexual Signs and Heterosexual Silences: Rorschach Studies of Male Homosexuality from 1921 to 1967," Journal of the History of Sexuality 12 ˆ(July 2003):400-423.

Vernon A. Rosario, Homosexuality and Science: A Guide to the Debates (Santa Barbara Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2002), chapters 6-7 (pp. 127-165).

American Psychiatric Association, Homosexuality and Sexual Orientation Disturbance: Proposed Change in DSM-II, Approved 1973.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2010: THE SCIENCE OF MOTHER LOVE

Marga Vicedo

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2010: THE SCIENCE OF MOTHER LOVE

Marga Vicedo, "The Father of Ethology and the Foster Mother of Ducks: Konrad Lorenz as Expert on Motherhood." Isis 100 (2009): 263-291.

Marga Vicedo, "Mothers, Machines, and Morals: Harry Harlow's Work on Primate Love from Lab to Legend." Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 45, no. 3 (2009):193-218.

MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2010: STUDENT GROUP PRESENTATIONS

All individual essays due before class

groups 1 and 2

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2010: STUDENT GROUP PRESENTATIONS

group 3 and 4

MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2010: THE CURIOUS COURTSHIP OF SEXUAL SCIENCE AND SEXUAL POLITICS

Roger N. Lancaster, "Sex, Science, and Pseudoscience in the Public Sphere," Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 13 (2006):101-138.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2010: CONCLUSION

Final take-home exam will be handed out in class. It is due on Monday, March 15, 2010 at noon in 321 McKenzie.