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AMST, ES, and WGSS Colloquium

You are invited to our colloquium with Dr. Lisa M. Vallin (Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies / U. of Hawai'i at ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹). Pedagogical Practices in Sexuality Studies: Rethinking Norms and Celebrating Sexual Diversity Sexuality studies occupies a uniquely intimate and politically charged space within higher education. In this talk, Dr. Vallin examines the ethical responsibility of teaching embodied content that students often experience not as an abstraction, but as lived realities. She argues that trust, transparency, and positional humility are foundational to transformative learning. Drawing on biological and physiological frameworks of sexuality, she explores how binary, reproductive, and medicalized narratives have constrained our understanding of sexual bodies. Narratives, which historically, and in many ways still, are legitimized through systems of white supremacy, Christianity, and capitalism. Through intentional language shifts, inclusive representation, and historical context, she proposes a restorative pedagogy that reveals biological diversity rather than reinforcing conformity and normativity. By centering pleasure, joy, and desire, and drawing on bell hooks’ call for a pedagogy of love, Dr. Vallin seeks to recognize and affirm complexity and a celebration of the full spectrum of our sexual diversity. Dr. Vallin’s research focuses on pedagogical practices that foster inclusive and affirming teaching and learning as they apply to the sex education classroom. She questions the role of primary public sex education cross-culturally and has researched students’ sex education experiences in her native Sweden, and here in the U.S. She is also active and committed to our community, where she consults and teaches sex education in K–12 settings. Date: Friday, March 6, 2026 Time: 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm Place: Crawford 115

Event Sponsor
Ethnic Studies, American Studies, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Dr. Heijin Lee, (808) 956-7464, shjlee@hawaii.edu