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P8723  Culture, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS

Offers a broad overview of the historical development of social science research on sexuality and sexual health. Divided into three main parts. First section examines early attempts (in the late nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth centuries) to develop a science of sexuality capable of providing objective and empirically based understandings of sexuality and sexual behavior as opposed to what were perceived to be the value-laden and moralistic understandings of religious belief or traditional popular culture. Second part focuses on the more contemporary development of social science research on sexuality and sexual health, particularly during the 1960s and '70s (but pror to the HIV/AIDS epidemic), in disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, and social psychology. Finally, third part focuses on the significant changes that have taken place in sexuality research following the emergence of AIDS, exploring the increasing engagement between social science research and public health programming, as well as the constitution of sexual health as a new field of specialization.

3 points