Sexualities and Transnational Mobilities in the Twentieth Century

• Department of History

This research seminar will discuss the interplay between sexual and cultural diversity in historical perspective.

This seminar explores how different forms of travel and migration have shaped sexual cultures around the world since 1900. Against the backdrop of current debates in supposedly liberated European societies that depict non-European immigration primarily as a threat to sexual freedom, the seminar asks under which social, economic and cultural conditions transnational mobilities can and could also enable emancipatory critiques of repressive sexual regimes.

We will begin by charting the conceptual grounds for discussions around sexual and cultural diversity, thereby touching on intersectionality, homonationalism and queer diasporas. Then we will look in more detail, firstly at sexual politics and encounters in colonial settings, secondly at different sexual cultures in transnational migratory dynamics, thirdly at the trajectories of sex workers and sex tourists, and fourthly at contemporary discussions around migrants, refugees and sexual diversity.

Along the way we will engage approaches from history as well as sociology, law and anthropology. In addition to secondary readings we will also look at newspaper articles, novels, legal documents and other primary sources. Based on all this we will in some sessions embark on a more practical exercise and collectively draft research proposals with an eye to the material at hand. In the end we may be able to say how a closer look at sexualities and transnational mobilities in the 20th century can benefit present-day discussions

The session on 22 February will be held on zoom, from 18.00 to 20.00