Professor to discuss global sexualities
Posted: March 09, 2010
LEWISBURG, Pa. — Evelyn Blackwood will give the talk, "Global Sexualities, or Are There Really Lesbians and Gays Everywhere?" on Monday, March 29, at 7 p.m. in the Forum of the Elaine Langone Center at Bucknell University.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, is the second lecture in the Social Science Colloquium Series, "Anatomy of Gender: Science, Sex and Culture in the 21st Century."
An associate professor of anthropology at Purdue University, Blackwood is the author of the forthcoming book, Falling into the Lesbi World: Desire and Difference in Indonesia. She has conducted research on lesbian and transgender identities, histories and practices globally for more than 25 years.
"Professor Blackwood's talk explores the diversity of female same-sex relations across cultures, from women in Suriname to tombois in Indonesia," said Susan Reed, director of the Bucknell Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender and an assistant professor of women's and gender studies and anthropology at Bucknell.
"Blackwood argues that sexuality is a social product dependent on cultural norms and beliefs," Reed said. "Despite the fact that we live in a globally connected world in which Western ideas seem to dominate, she demonstrates that the concept of sexual orientation does not hold up cross-culturally. Her discussion of the diversity of sexualities will push the boundaries of our thinking about sexuality and sexual identities."
Blackwood also is the author of Webs of Power: Women, Kin and Community in a Sumatran Village (2000) and co-editor of Women's Sexualities and Masculinities in a Globalizing Asia (2007) and Female Desires: Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices Across Cultures (2000).
The next event in the series is the talk, "Gender, Sexuality and Memory," with Anne Fausto-Sterling, a professor of biology and gender studies at Brown University, on Tuesday, April 13, at 7 p.m. in the Forum of the Elaine Langone Center. The series is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the University Lectureship Committee, and the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender.
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