About The International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society

IASSCS was formed in July 1997 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, following a successful conference, titled Beyond Boundaries: Sexuality Across Cultures. The conference was jointly hosted by the Universities of Amsterdam and Chicago and was broadly concerned with the social and cultural study of sexuality. Scholars from anthropology, history, sociology, health policy and cultural and gender studies came together. It was noted in the Amsterdam meeting that no organisation existed which provided a forum for interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies of sexuality. Existing scholarly, scientific, and advocacy groups tended to be concerned with specific aspects of sexuality, while tending to ignore wider aspects of social and cultural experience. The impetus behind the creation of IASSCS was the perceived need to address the fragmentation of studies in sexuality and to provide a forum for expanding and developing sexuality as a legitimate area of scholarship.

Aims

IASSCS seeks:

to promote the study of sexual identity, desire and experience in the context of specific social and cultural circumstances, thus prioritising the crucial diversity of this area of study.

to encourage, additionally, cross-cultural and cross-national dimensions which would address the general hiatus in the inclusion of diverse, Third World and non-western perspectives in studies of sexuality.

to remedy the gap which exists between Third and First World scholars and students, and to facilitate communication about scholarly as well as research and training possibilities between colleagues across the globe.

to continue to emphasise the central role of sexuality and sexual identity in the wider social and political dimension of human rights.

Objectives

to create and fund an international internet user system for sharing information and resources.

to create through this internet system, an Electronic Newsletter, reproduced in printed form for those members unable to access the internet.

to promote teaching and training workshops by sharing syllabi, workshop manuals, and in helping to create internet multi-media material for use by all colleagues and students.

to promote research and educational collaboration across national and ethnic boundaries, and to seek to share resources to this end.

to promote tolerance and respect for the cultural rules and roles of sexuality in all countries, including the respect for human and sexual rights, as these impinge upon research and training internationally.

to organise and host a biennial international conference to promote the social and cultural study of sexuality in its cross-disciplinary and diverse aspects, the next to be held in Hanoi - Vietnam, in Abril 2009.