Sexual Behaviors, Politics, and Communities Summer 2019 Newsletter Colleagues and friends, I hope this brief summer newsletter finds you all well and coming off a successful and fruitful academic year, both in teaching and scholarship. We’ve seen a year of continued developments in cultural, social, and political issues of sexuality around the world, ranging from re-criminalization of abortion and erosion of women’s reproductive rights to ongoing violence against trans* women and increasing violence against LGBTs in general. Meanings of sexual variation and identities continues to grow and change even as Neo-liberal homo-normativity dominates popular culture and political movements. As various kinds of queernesses and queer folk move around the globe and interact, new kinds of sexual cultures are arising even as sexual minorities in many places are struggling for daily survival. These kinds of tensions and contradictions, exciting creativity and sobering reality, with an eye toward justice and, if I dare say, human flourishing, are what our division is about, and I trust that all of your great work over the past year has advanced knowledge, politics, community development, and pedagogy. The division meeting for SBPC will be Friday, August 9th, 12:30-14:00 in the Grand Ballroom. Please plan on attending to discuss the business below. 2020 Budget The SSSP Board voted to increase division budgets by 100/year, and so our budget is going up from the proposed and approved $500 budget. I’m waiting to hear back on how we might allocate those extra funds. Our approved budget was as follows: 2020 Budget Items Requested and Approved Amount 1. Stipend to Division Newsletter Editor $80.00
2. Cash Award to the Division’s Graduate Student Paper Competition Winner $200.00 3. Cash Award to the Biennial Published Book Award $100.00 3. Division-Sponsored Reception at the Annual Meeting $120.00 Total: $500.00 At our Division meeting in New York, we should discuss allocation of those extra funds. I would suggest increasing the stipend for the Division newsletter with at least part of the new funds. New Officer Elections As you prepare for August’s SSSP Conference, I’d like to ask you if you’d consider standing for division elections this fall. First and foremost, we’ll be electing a new Division Chair for 2020-22, and a new Newsletter editor for 2019-20. Division Chair: The role of the chair comes in fits and starts, but is relatively low key. The big responsibilities include: Creating and maintaining the yearly budget, running the Division meetings at the SSSP Conference, participating in the session organization meetings at the Conference, writing Chair’s messages for the newsletter, and other administrative responsibilities that arise during the academic year. Newsletter Editor: This position comes with more responsibilities, and therefore a very small stipend (which we may be able to increase; see above). The Newsletter must be accessible so that all participants in SSSP and the public can read it, regardless of ability. With the help of a newly elected Newsletter later this fall, I’m hoping we can think through a strategy for regular and full newsletters going forward, with a better remunerated editor to take the lead and specific board members in charge of regular portions of the Newsletter going forward (see below). Come to the Division Meeting in New York with ideas about how to build this into our division habits and structure. Division Board (Proposal): Other divisions (e.g., Disability) have a full board of several members, e.g., outreach and pedagogy/teaching. At our 2019 Division Meeting, we should discuss if our division has the membership and will to expand our presence and activity with a larger board looking outward from where we are to how we can grow the reach of our scholarship and activism. Research Awards 2019 & 2020 Graduate Student Paper Award 2019: For the first time since Lloyd Klein has been adjudicating the award for best graduate student paper in sexuality, there were no nominations for the award. I did some poking around with other divisions and SSSP and found that this is something that happens rather more frequently than I would’ve thought. However, I have the impression that we have many impressive graduate students in the division who should have been considered this year. Let’s discuss and strategize how to make sure that faculty are aware of this opportunity for the students going forward so that we don’t ever have a dry year again. Best Book and Best Faculty Article Awards: At our 2018 meeting, we voted to institute new scholarship awards that would rotate in alternating years, beginning this year with our new budget. Our division will award a new book in even years (beginning at our 2020 conference, for books published in 2018-19) and best article in odd years (beginning at our 2021 conference, for articles published in 2019-2020). Two issues need to be discussed: How will we adjudicate and choose the award winners? This seems like another reason to institute a more full Board for the division, so the work could be divided among them. But I’m open to suggestions for the best ways to proceed, especially from more experienced division members who may have worked on such awards in other divisions or professional organizations. I would hope to include non-traditional scholarship (e.g., community-engaged, applied, and participatory) and activism as part of the awards as well. How does the division feel about that? How would we either integrate them into the traditional categories or reorganize the categories completely (e.g., one year traditional scholarship, the next year community scholarship or activism)? Etc. Collaboration with the Gender Division I am pleased that the SSSP Board has approved the creation of the new Gender division, as this has seemed like a strange oversight the entire 10 years I’ve been active in the SSSP. Because gender and sexuality are so often so tightly intertwined (e.g., reproductive rights and homo- and transphobia all arise out of misogyny), I’m hoping our division can strategize ways to effectively collaborate with the Gender division. As a queer person, I feel strongly especially that LGB/P issues must remain closely allied with Trans* issues; and that sexual desires and behaviors are intricately tied up in gender identities, roles, and performances within various regimes of power. As a division, would we want to formalize a connection with Gender or more generally have a policy within SBPC to ally with the concerns of the Gender division? 2019 SSSP Conference As you can see from the online program, our division meeting in New York will have a full agenda. Please come with as many ideas and, if you have the time and space in your schedule, a willingness to roll up your sleeves and volunteer to help keep our division rolling and growing and active. Of course, our division is also sponsoring and co-sponsoring a full slate of amazing panels and discussions as part of the conference, including sessions on cross-cultural and transnational sexualities, trans* lives and activism, activist theories of sexuality, etc. I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible. So until then! Session Proposals for 2020 SSSP Conference Finally, at our Division meeting we will be discussion potential sessions we’d like our division to sponsor and co-sponsored at the 2020 conference in San Francisco. The incoming president has announced the theme: Bringing the Hope Back In: Sociological Imagination and Dreaming Transformation. Please come with ideas and proposals for sessions you’d like to see on the 2020 program. Remember that there are three kinds of sessions: Regular paper session, Papers in the round, and Critical Dialogues. Enjoy the rest of your summer and I look forward to seeing and reconnecting with you in August. J. Todd Ormsbee Division Chair 2018-20 Sexual Behaviors, Politics, and Communities