Introducing the New Sexuality Studies

As the field of sexuality studies has become a growth area in academia and classes on sexuality studies are incorporated into various disciplines, the expanding book market has been filled with specialist oriented texts which are often theoretically focused and contain too many summaries for an undergraduate audience. Addressing this imbalance, this key new volume presents the field of sexuality in an accessible and engaging way for undergraduates.

Breaking new ground, both substantively and stylistically, this book offers students, academics and researchers an accessible, engaging introduction and overview of this emerging field. Its central premise is to explore the social character of sexuality, the role of social differences such as race or nationality in creating sexual variation, and the ways sex is entangled in relations of power and inequality. Through this novel approach, the field of sexuality is considered, for the first time, in multicultural, global, and comparative terms and from a truly social perspective.

This important volume consists of over fifty short and original essays on the key topics and themes in sexuality studies, and interviews with twelve leading scholars in the field which convey some of the most innovative work being done. Each contribution clearly conveys the latest research with examples. Ideal for students of gender and sexuality studies, this topical and timely volume will be an invaluable resource to all those with an interest in sexuality studies.

Steven Seidman is Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Albany. He is the author of, among other books, Romantic Longings: Love in America, 1830-1980 (Routledge, 1991), Embattled Eros: Sexual Politics and Ethics in America (Routledge, 1992), Difference Troubles: Queering Social Theory and Sexual Politics (1997), Beyond the closet (Routledge, 2002), and The Social construction of sexuality (2003). He co-edited Social Postmodernism: Beyond Identity Politics (1995) and edited Queer Theory/Sociology (1996) and the Lesbian and Gay reader (2002).

Nancy Fischer is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at Augsburg College, Minneapolis. Her research and teaching is in the areas of urban sociology, sexuality and the sociology of law.

Chet Meeks is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Georgia State University. His interests include contemporary social theory, sexuality studies, and cultural sociology.