Beyond Norms and Categories: Towards a History of Sexual Practices, 1850–1960
The international workshop "Beyond Norms and Categories: Towards a History of Sexual Practices, 1850-1960" at the University of Bremen on February 20 and 21, 2024 will discuss the century before the so-called "sexual revolution" – without seeing this period as a prehistory – and pay special attention to the history of social practices rather than the history of sexual norms.
Beyond Norms and Categories: Towards a History of Sexual Practices, 1850–1960
Sexuality is at the center of contemporary social movements. The #MeToo movement against sexual abuse, harassment, and violence since 2017 and the LGBTQ movements advocating for equal rights, benefits and protection from harm for queer people have gained momentum worldwide, sparking also a growing interest in the history of sexuality. Recent work has mainly focused on the second half of the twentieth century, examining moral norms and social practices in the decades which are commonly – and certainly not entirely unfairly – referred to as the sexual revolution.
This workshop will look at the period that preceded it – without seeing this period as a prehistory to sexual liberation. Instead, it aims to discuss notions of temporality, of progress and regression, as contingent phenomena. We invite papers that explore the relationship between pleasurable, reproductive and violent practices of sexuality since the mid-nineteenth century. The overarching question of the workshop is: What do concrete practices of pleasure/displeasure, procreation/contraception, and sexual violence reveal about the organization of society?
Registration
Participation at the workshop is free of charge. It is also possible to ttend the workshop online via Zoom. Please e-mail lisa.hellriegel@uni-bremen.de until 10 February 2024 to register.
Programm
Tuesday, 20 February 2024
12.30 pm: Arrival, welcome
1.00–3.00 pm: Race, Racism and Sexuality
Chair: Norman Aselmeyer (Universität Bremen, Germany)
Lucy Debus (Gedenkstätte Lager Sandbostel, Germany):
Forbidden Relationships between Germans and Prisoners of War or Forced Labourers during the Second World War
Alexander Maxwell (Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand):
Lustful Doctors in the Orient. Foreign Women and Sexual Respectability in the 1820s and 1830s
Loong Dien Min (University of Cambridge, UK):
Beyond the Law of ‘Unnatural Offences’. Uncovering Experiences of (Il)legitimate Intimacies in British Malaya’s Plural Legal and Normative Landscape (1860–1938)
3.00–3.30 pm: Coffee Break
3.30–6.30 pm: Religion and Reproduction
Chair: Birgit Aschmann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany)
Jessica Albrecht (Universität Bonn, Germany):
Religion, Sexual Education and Eugenics
Pauline Mortas (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France):
Writing the History of Sexualities Through Objects? What Contraceptive Devices Can Teach Us About Sexual Practices and Sensibilities (France, 1880s–1930s)
Katerina Piro (Universität Mannheim, Germany):
Reproduction and Sexuality and the Ambivalent Protestant Clerics in Germany around 1900
Alina Potempa (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany):
Playing „Vatican Roulette“ – Catholicism and Contraception after 1930
Veronika Settele (Universität Bremen, Germany):
Secularizing Pleasure and Reproduction among Church Personnel and Lay People in Germany and France, around 1900
7.30 pm: Dinner at bellini, Universitätsallee 14, 28359 Bremen
Wednesday, 21 February 2024
9.00–11.00 am: Sexual Violence and Law
Chair: Julia Reus (Universität Bayreuth, Germany)
Lisa Hellriegel (Universität Bremen, Germany):
Between Consent and Violence. What Court Files Tell Us About Sexual Practices in German Cities, c. 1900–1935
Chifundo Kamba (Stellenbosch University, South Africa):
Towards the Making of the Legal Culture. European Conceptualisations of Sexual Violence among the Local Population of Malawi, c. 1891–1920
Sabina Mompó (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain):
Rape in Franco's Spain through Medical Reports and Legal Proceedings. Sexed Violence, Infanticide and Moral-Catholic Judgment
11.00–11.30 am: Coffee Break
11.30 am–1.30 pm: Deviance and Control
Chair: Andrea Rottmann (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)
Paul Durand (EHESS Paris, France):
Exploring the Boundaries of Intimacy and Sexuality. Gender as a Tool for Homosexual Encounters and Police Arrests in Public Toilets between the Two World Wars in Angers
Jens Elberfeld (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany):
„Liederlich, raffiniert und mannstoll“ (“Dissolute, Refined and Man-Mad“). Welfare Education and Adolescent Sexuality in Early 20th Century Germany
Daniel Gerster (Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg, Germany):
“We Found Individual Relief in Masturbation.” Towards a History of Onanism from below
1.30 pm: Lunch (optional)