Centre for Gender History

Sex, the Body, and Relationships

The discreet yet interrelated themes of sexed bodies and intimate relations are a specialism of the Centre. Several members are engaged in identifying historically specific discourses relating to sexuality, gender and the body and tracing their complex relationship with everyday lived experience. A diverse range of cultural, religious and class settings are considered with a particular focus on modern Scotland. Topics include queer identities and relationships in post-war Scotland (Meek); women, secularisation and the sexual revolution in Canada, Ireland, the UK and USA (Brown); sexually progressive subcultures in late-Victorian and Edwardian Scotland (Cheadle); and working-class courtship, marriage and marital breakdown in Scotland, 1855-1976 (Gordon, Elliot and Hughes).

Centre historians employ a number of methodologies in their work, including discourse analysis, critical biography, quantitative methods and oral history. Postgraduates are currently researching topics including the 1960s sexual revolution in Scotland, sexual prejudice against bisexual men and an oral history of the readership of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.