441 - Thematic Session. Sexual Fields

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Recently, scholars of sexuality have turned to Bourdieu and field theory to make sense of collective sexual life and its unique social organization. In this stream of research, the specialized arenas of modern sexual life—from the neighborhood coffee shop to the global Internet dating site—are conceived as sexual fields, each possessing their own particular socio-demographic composition and status order. This thematic session will explore the turn to sexual field theory, including its theoretical underpinnings and its capacity to illuminate the social foundations of sexual desire and desirability. Here, panelists will consider what field theory has to offer the study of sexuality, including how the structures of race, class, gender and nationality materialize in systems of sexual stratification but, also, how the study of sexuality may shed light on Bourdieusian field theory.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Adam Isaiah Green, University of Toronto

Presider

• Lisa Renee Miller, Indiana University-Bloomington

Panelists

• Adam Isaiah Green, University of Toronto

• Omar A. Lizardo, University of Notre Dame

• Margaret Frye, Princeton University

• John Levi Martin, University of Chicago