NOTES FROM THE CHAIR As the incoming chair of the Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities section, I wanted to thank the outgoing chair Sandra Schroer and newsletter editor Dana Atwood-Harvey for their excellent work on behalf of the Division. Through their efforts, and the efforts of the many other division members, the 2008 annual meeting in Boston was an enormous success. The Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division was quite busy this year, with a teaching workshop and 11 sessions on such diverse topics as race, ethnicity, and gender in LGBTI research to sexuality across the lifecourse. Rashawn Ray from Indiana University won the Division’s 2008 Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award for his paper Getting off and Getting Intimate: How Normative Institutional Arrangements Structure Black and White Fraternity Men’s Approaches towards Women. As it is being held in the city that has spawned a multitude of sexual subcultures, the 2009 Annual Meeting in San Francisco promises to be a most auspicious one for the SBPC Division. We already have an exciting array of sessions scheduled. The Division is co-sponsoring two sessions: Sexuality and Substance Abuse with the Drinking and Drugs Division, organized by Booke Wells; and Queer Families with the Family division, co-organized by Nancy Mezey and Jaime McCauley. Marni Kahn has organized the session Coming Out Experiences and Non- Heterosexual Identities: Past, Present, and Future, and Kendal Broad has organized the session GLBTQ Racism and Anti-Racism. Robert Bienvenue has organized the complete session entitled Pungent with Peril: Historical and Modern Medicalization of BDSM/Kink Sexualities. Panelists are: Robert Bienvenu, presenting Parallel Worlds: Historical development of medical classificatory frameworks defining sadism, masochism, and fetishism, and their interaction with contemporary sexual subcultures; Charles Moser, presenting The DSM-IV-TR and the forthcoming DSM-V: Confusions and unanswered questions regarding the classification of sexual sadism, sexual masochism, and fetishism as mental disorders; and Richard Sprott, presenting Social effects of medicalization: a look at the impact of medicalization on BDSM/Kink communities today. Gayle Rubin will serve as moderator for that session. The SBPC is once again hosting a graduate student paper competition for the upcoming annual meeting. Submissions for this award have fluctuated significantly over the past several years, and the competition would benefit from a wider pool of applicants. Graduate students: I want to encourage you to submit your work for consideration for this, and other SSSP, paper competitions. Being awarded measures of excellence is a great way to build a vita, and you will never receive them unless you try. Faculty: Please look for promising course papers that could be refined, encourage graduate students in your departments to submit their work for these competitions, and consider designing your syllabi to produce papers that will meet the guidelines. Everyone: Please tell your colleagues, friends, and students about the competition. Advertising it now will give students a chance to prepare their work. Accolades can be especially difficult to come by when researching sexualities, so it is important to take advantage of every possible opportunity. Even more importantly, an active stream of research and discussion enriches and us as a community of thinkers. Entries for this competition can make important contributions to that discussion. The winner of the 2009 award will receive a monetary prize, paid registration for the 2008 meeting in San Francisco, a ticket to the banquet, and a one year student membership to SSSP (a $250 value). Submissions must be received by May 1, 2009. Please see the call for papers below for more details. I look forward to an exciting year ahead and the continued success of the Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division. SEXUALITY IN THE NEWS Time Magazine recently featured a story about female genital cosmetic surgery: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1859937,00.html Tyra Banks surveys teenage girls about sexual behavior: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/27706917/?GT1=43001 Did a bone marrow transplant “cure” a patient’s HIV infection? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122602394113507555.html Manhunt takes safety precautions, Hires Former CDC Employee: http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid65585.asp Obama to revert HIV/STI prevention policies: http://www.stdpreventiononline.org HPV vaccine has efficacy against genital warts in men: http://www.stdpreventiononline.org SSSP 2009 MEETING CALL FOR PAPERS 59TH ANNUAL MEETING Stanford Court Hotel, SAN FRANCISCO, CA “RACE, ETHNICITY, AND THE CONTINUING PROBLEM OF THE COLOR LINE” SSSP is now accepting submissions for the 2009 meeting. The deadline is midnight (EST) on January 31, 2009. Go to http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/349/fuseaction/ssspsession.publicView to submit an abstract or paper. Listed below are the division thematic sessions and the joint sessions that our division is co-sponsoring with other divisions. DIVISION THEMATIC SESSIONS Session Title: GLBTQ Racism and Anti-Racism This panel would present the latest research about how GLBTQ communities, organizations and individuals reproduce and resist racism. Organizer: K.L. BROAD, Ph.D. Associate Professor (Joint Appointment), Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research (CWSGR)/ Department of Sociology, University of Florida, PO Box 117352, 301 Ustler Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611-7352 352-273-0389, FAX: 352-392-4873, kendal@soc.ufl.edu, http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/kendal/ Session Title: Pungent with Peril: Historical and Modern Medicalization of BDSM/Kink Sexualities Organizer: Robert V. Bienvenu II, Ph.D., CIP Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities (CARAS) PO Box 1721, Olney, MD, 20830 Robert.Bienvenu@CARASResearch.org> Session Title: Coming Out Experiences and Non- Heterosexual Identities: Past, Present, and Future Organizer: Marni Kahn Georgia State University, Department of Sociology PO Box 5020 Atlanta, Ga 30302-5020 Marnialyson@aol.com JOINT SESSIONS Sexuality and Substance Abuse (With Drinking and Drugs Division)—Organizer: Brooke Wells Queer Families (With Family Division)—Co-Organizers: Nancy Mezey & Jaime McCauley Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division Graduate Student Paper Competition Deadline: 5/1/09 The Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division announces the 2009 Graduate Student Paper Competition. Papers may be empirical and/or theoretical, and they may be on any aspect of sexuality, including sexual behavior, sexual identity, sexual politics, sex law, political activism, or sexual communities. The winner will receive a stipend of $100, payment of the winner’s SSSP registration fee for the 2009 SSSP meeting (to help the winner attend the meeting), and a ticket to the awards banquet. The winner will be expected to present their winning paper at one of the SBPC sessions being held as part of the 2009 SSSP meeting. To be eligible, a paper must meet the following criteria: 1) The paper must have been written between January 2008 and March 2009; 2) The paper may not have been submitted or accepted for publication (papers that have been presented at a professional meeting or that have been submitted for presentation at a professional meeting are eligible); 3) The paper must be authored by one or more students, and not co-authored with a faculty member or colleague who is not a student; 4) The paper must not exceed 35 pages including notes, references, and tables; 5) The paper must be typed using 12 point font in either Times New Roman or Courier; and 6) The paper must be accompanied by a letter from a faculty member at the student’s college or university nominating the paper for the SBPC Division Student Paper Competition. Students should send five copies of their paper, with no identifying information on any part of the paper; and a letter of nomination from a faculty member to: Dr. David Foster Steele, steeled@apsu.edu , Austin Peay State University, Department of Sociology, Clement 151 (P.O. Box 4566), Clarksville, TN 37044, (931) 221-7519. MEMBER BOOK RELEASES CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS SOCIETY FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF SEXUALITY EASTERN AND MIDCONTINENT REGION MEETING 2009 MEETING IN ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA, JUNE 5-7, 2009 THE THEME IS “THE BUSINESS OF SEX” ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS JANUARY 16, 2009 TO SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT: http://www.sexscience.org THE WORLD ASSOCIATION FOR SEXUAL HEALTH 2009 MEETING IN GOTENBORG, JUNE 21-25, 2009 THE THEME IS “Sexual Health & Rights: A Global Challenge” ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS JANUARY 15, 2009 TO SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT: http://abstracts.sexo-goteborg-2009.com ADVANCES IN GENDER RESEARCH An annual series published by Emerald Series Co-Editors: Marcia Texler Segal and Vasilikie Demos We are now seeking submissions for volume 14 to be published in 2010. We are interested in original manuscripts dealing with new developments in the study of gender informed by a variety of feminist frameworks including an understanding of gender as it intersects with sexuality, identity politics, and community. Articles that are theoretical, empirical or applied, dealing with any nation or region, or taking a comparative perspective, are welcome. Advances in Gender Research is an ideal venue for papers on gender, including those that are of a traditional journal-article length, as well as extended essays that explore topics in greater depth. Authors from all parts of the world are encouraged to submit manuscripts. However, all manuscripts must be in English and submitted electronically in MSWord or WordPerfect, and all contributors must be able to communicate with the editors and the publisher via e-mail. Send one page abstracts or drafts of papers no later than January 15, 2009 to msegal@ius.edu and demosvp@morris.umn.edu Sex Roles: Feminist Forum In the October 2008 issue of the journal, Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, initiated a new section of the journal called the “Feminist Forum.” The journal invites submissions of theoretical reviews of feminist social science research for this section. The first issue published work on Darwinian feminism. I am currently an Assistant Professor at Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU), holding a joint position in the Criminal Justice, Social and Political Science Department and our Gender and Women’s Studies Program. My research interests revolve around the intersections of gender and sexuality, heteronormativity, identity formations, and the nexus between space and sexuality. Starting with my dissertation project, my ethnographic research has entailed the study of lesbian/queer public sex and public sexual cultures. These public sexual sites have included a variety of lesbian/queer leather/kink events, and lesbian/queer bathhouses in Canada. Unfortunately, these lesbian/queer bathhouses are not permanent lesbian/queer-only spaces, but rather take over gay male bathhouses several times a year. I am most interested in the linkages between sexual practice and spatial formations, the bodily capital found at these sites (which varies greatly from gay male sexual venues), the disciplining of bodies, and how spatial formations and arrangements provide the particular parameters for certain sexual behaviors—contours which work to either foster or constrain particular practices and types of negotiation patterns. For instance, some bathhouse users who regularly patronize these spaces express experiencing shifts in their sexual subjectivities and notions of self over time. In short, for these participants they articulate an enlarging of sexual horizons and an increased awareness vis-à-vis their body and bodily desires. Some of the major themes and foci that reverberate throughout my work have to do with notions and aspects of sexual agency, the intersections between feminist and queer theory, and the sexual politics of space and the politics of (non)belonging. For instance, transphobia and a currency of racism (often in the form of racial erotization) operating in these spaces suggests that those with a particular bodily capital (white and non-trans) are more apt to have “liberating” experiences, and thus have access to a wider spatial field (taking up more space) with which to explore. I am now in the process of synthesizing this data. Ultimately, my goal is to see this work come to life in the form of a book. Intersectionality is my primary theoretical tool, and through that lens I interrogate lesbian sexualities in its many forms. This frame, lesbian intersectionality, enables me to see the continuities and patterns that emerge as it relates to lesbian subjectivities. I am currently working on two projects that will continue this focus. These projects entail examining lesbians and aging utilizing a life course perspective, and alternative families of color. For instance, what are the unique challenges and issues that older lesbians face, and how does this differ compared to gay men or heterosexual women? Because lesbian sexuality is an understudied and undertheorized area, my aim is to fill this gap, and thus widen the discourse and expand our knowledge in this area. With the help of an AASU student, we are working to queer up our campus with our first gayish organization—the Gay/Straight Alliance. Seeing that we are located in the Deep South this is seriously a big step for us and the institution (it’s true). We are hoping to create some visibility around here for our GLBTIQ students, establish a network, and carve out a safe space for our queer students. When I am not busy researching and teaching my favorite subjects (obviously: sexuality and gender), I am usually hanging out with my partner or making another pot of coffee. I am hoping to get an Expresso machine for Christmas to finally put an end to my endless consumption of Starbucks’ lattes. EDITORIAL NOTE Welcome to the Fall 2008 edition of the Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division Newsletter. As the new editor of the division newsletter, let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Brooke Wells and I am a Social Psychologist. I am currently a Project Director at the Center for HIV Educational Studies & Training (CHEST) in New York, a postdoctoral fellow in the Behavioral Science Training Program at National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI) in New York, and an adjunct assistant professor at Hunter College, where I teach The Psychology of Human Sexuality. I also want to thank Dana Atwood-Harvey for her help in getting me acquainted with the newsletter process and for her hard work as the newsletter editor these past years. Thanks, Dana! As the new editor of the division newsletter, I am open to suggestions regarding newsletter format and content (sections you like, content you would like to see in the future, etc.). The newest section, Sexuality in the News, is a section I have added with stories that have relevance to our understandings of human sexuality. For the next newsletter, please send me stories you would like me to highlight, news items, publications of interests, calls for submission (conferences, special issues, etc.), or anything else you would like to go out to our division members in the newsletter. Further, if you or someone you know would like to be highlighted in the Member Spotlight section, please send me an e-mail with that information. I can be reached with suggestions, comments, and questions at bwells@chestnyc.org. I hope this finds you all well! Happy Holidays! Brooke Wells 10