Why Study Sex? Research at the Kinsey
Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 * 3-5 p.m. *
Kinsey
Institute, Morrison 313 * SIGN-UP
REQUIRED
Why study sex? a controversial topic, to be sure. IU's
world-renowned Kinsey
Institute, whose mission is to promote interdisciplinary research and
scholarship in the fields of human sexuality, gender, and reproduction,
answers with a list of pressing social and health issues modern-day sex
research seeks to address: "overpopulation, reproductive health, sexually
transmitted diseases . . ., teenage pregnancy, sexual abuse, assault and
harassment, and sexual dysfunction."
The Kinsey Institute traces its origins to a 1938 petition to Indiana
University by the Association of Women Students "for a course for students
who were married or contemplating marriage." In preparing to teach the
course Alfred Kinsey, a Harvard-trained zoologist whose specialty was gall
wasps, found there was little scientific data on human sexual behavior and
so he began to collect his own, laying the foundation for the work that
would be done by the institute that now bears his name and by researchers
around the world. Who studies sex? What are the questions being asked
and the methodologies being used? Join institute director Julia
Heiman and others for a discussion of research at the
Kinsey--past, present, and future--and a tour of the institute. Heiman is
also a professor of psychology, and her research focuses on the
physiological and emotional dimensions of sexuality, as well as the
development of interventions for those with sexual problems.
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