On July 13-15th, 2016 Sexuality Policy Watch organized the seminar/workshop SexPolitics: Mapping Key Trends and Tensions in the Early 21st Century in Durban, South Africa. Thirty-five researchers and activists from all over the world presented and discussed their analyses and views on how political landscapes related to sexuality have been reconfigured since 2002, when SPW was first established. These analyses cover geographic trends, both in terms of dynamics at play in larger diverse regions as well as a number of specific countries, and various domains of sexuality politics and related research, such as: sexual rights, trans rights and gender identity, abortion, sex work and HIV and AIDS.
Richard Parker, Sonia Corrêa, and Gloria Careaga opened the meeting and laid the framework for the project and our time together explaining that “we are an open collective that brings different people to the conversation whenever possible and relevant”. They announced that one goal of the workshop was a collective birthing of a new round of publications that can take a variety of shapes and will be determined as we go on.
The first part of the workshop focused on presenting regional overviews of the most pressing issues and how these landscapes have shifted over time. Then the group moved on to address major facets of sexuality to explore the intersections and trends of religion, queer theory, sexual rights, sex work, abortion, HIV/AIDS, and trans research activism. The workshop closed with some time to reflect, synthesize, and brain storm next steps for action.
Unfortunately, we were not able to record notes for all of the sessions, comments, and discussions. In particular we would like to apologize for failing to capture comments from Sibongile Ndashe and Peter Aggleton.
