12/11/20: The New Attack on Sexuality Research

For the next session of the Queer STS Reading Group, we'll be discussing Steven Epstein's (2006) "The new attack on sexuality research: Morality and the politics of knowledge production." We will be Zooming/meeting on 12th November at 5pm (London time).

In this article, Epstein sketches a debate over public funding for research pertaining to sex, sexuality, and sexual health in the United States. Interrogating the arguments levelled by right-wing opponents and left-wing proponents (or, better put, defenders) of sexuality research, Epstein highlights the close entanglements of morality and knowledge production and the occasions where this relationship is more or less efficiently leveraged for political gain. The theoretical developments made by Epstein in this short text are, I think, central to the project of a 'queer STS' - encouraging us to think more closely about the overlaps between the politics of knowledge and the politics of sexuality.

The text can be found here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1525/srsp.2006.3.1.01

And the Zoom link for on the day is here: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/96096304392