Out in Public: Reinventing Lesbian / Gay Anthropology in a Globalizing World(Readings in Engaged Anthropology)

Out in Public addresses, and engages us in, the new and exciting directions in the emerging field of lesbian/gay anthropology. The authors offer a deep conversation about the meaning of sexuality, subjectivity and culture. Affirms the importance of recognizing gay and lesbian social issues within the arena of public anthropology Explores critical concerns of gay activism in a variety of global settings, from the U.S., the European Union, Singapore, Nigeria, India, Nicaragua, and Guadalajara Offers a unique focus on the politics of being gay and lesbian - in cross-cultural perspective Deals with broad-ranging issues that affect human sexuality and human rights globally Winner of the 2009 Ruth Benedict Prize in the category of "Best Anthology"

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments. Notes on Contributors. Editors’ Introduction. Part I. Out in Public: Reflecting on Experience. 1. My Date with Phil Donahue: A Queer Intellectual in TV-Land (Esther Newton, University of Michigan). 2. Changes and Challenges: Ethnography, Homosexuality, and HIV Prevention Work in Guadalajara (Héctor Carrillo, San Francisco State University). 3. Going Home Ain’t Always Easy: Ethnography and the Politics of Black Responsibility (E. Patrick Johnson, Northwestern University). Part II. Sexual Sameness is not a Self-Evident Terrain. 4. The Personal Isn’t Always Political (Karen Brodkin, University of California, Los Angeles). 5. Who’s Gay? What’s Gay?: Dilemmas of Identity Among Gay Fathers (Ellen Lewin, University of Iowa). 6. A Queer Situation: Poverty, Prisons, and Performances of Infidelity and Instability in the New Orleans Lesbian Anthem (Natasha Sandraya Wilson, University of Iowa). Part III. Unpacking the Engagements between Sexuality and Broader Ideological Positions. 7. Tuskegee on the "Down Low": A Bioculturalist Brings the Past into the Present (Rachel Watkins, American University). 8. Back and Forth to the Land: Negotiating Rural and Urban Sexuality Among the Radical Faeries (Scott Morgensen, Macalaster College). 9. The Power of Stealth: (In)Visible Sites of Female-to-Male Transsexual Resistance (Elijah Adiv Edelman, American University). 10. Rumsfeld!: Consensual BDSM and "Sadomasochistic Torture" at Abu Ghraib (Margot Weiss, Wesleyan University). 11. Professional Baseball, Urban Restructuring and (Changing) Gay Geographies in Washington DC (William L. Leap, American University). Part IV. International and Local Formations of Same-Sex and Transgender Identities. 12. Public Sex:The Geography of Female Homoeroticism and the (In)Visibility of Female Sexualities (Megan Sinnott, Georgia State University). 13. Neither in the Closet nor on the Balcony: Private Lives and Public Activism in Nicaragua (Florence Babb, University of Florida). 14. Life Lube:Discursive Spheres of Sexuality, Science, and AIDS (Harris Solomon, Brown University). 15. Man Marries Man in Nigeria? (Rudolf Gaudio, State University of New York College, Purchase) Part V. Sexuality and Neo-liberal Citizenship. 16. LGBT Rights in the European Union, a Queer Affair? (Mark Graham, University of Stockholm). 17. Turning the Lion City Pink?: Interrogating Singapore’s Gay Civil Servant Statement (Chris Tan, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign). 18. The Marriage between Kinship and Sexuality in New Mexico’s Domestic Partnership Debate (Lavinia Nicolae, University of New Mexico).

About the Author :
Ellen Lewin is Professor of Women’s Studies and Anthropology at the University of Iowa. She is the author of Lesbian Mothers: Accounts of Gender in American Culture (Cornell University Press, 1993) and Recognizing Ourselves: Lesbian and Gay Ceremonies of Commitment (Columbia University Press, 1998), and the editor of Inventing Lesbian Cultures in America (Beacon Press, 1996) and of Feminist Anthropology: A Reader (Blackwell, 2006). With William L. Leap, she has co-edited two volumes of essays on lesbian and gay anthropology, Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (University of Illinois Press, 1996) and Out in Theory: The Emergence of Lesbian and Gay Anthropology (University of Illinois Press, 2002). William Leap is Professor of Anthropology at American University. He is the author of Word’s Out: Gay Men’s English (University of Minnesota Press, 1996), and editor of Public Sex, Gay Space (Columbia University Press, 1999) and co-editor of Speaking in Queer Tongues: Globalization and Gay Language (University of Illinois Press, 2004). With Ellen Lewin, he has co-edited Out in the Field and Out in Theory.