Staging a conference to expand and reframe the University of Washington Department of Global Health's approach to sexuality

Abstract

In this paper I examine the framing of global sexual health employed by the University of Washington Department of Global Health (UW DGH) by examining a number of indicators such as faculty expertise, courses offered, and funding streams. The UW DGH employs a relatively narrow framing of global sexual health that prioritizes a biomedical model over other socially and politically contextualized models. Global, multicultural and postcolonial feminist and queer theories suggest that a narrow framing of global sexual health may be less effective in addressing complex public health issues, and may reinforce traditional gender/sexuality binaries and negative stereotypes and perceptions of gender non-conforming and LGBTIQ individuals. I offer some suggestions of what a broader framing of global sexual health would look like, and how to move toward such a broader, more contextualized framing.