Unwilling To Know: Male Homosexuality at the Crossroads of Europe, 1870-1965

This event will take place at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solbosch Campus, in the Henri Janne Room, on the 15th floor of Building S. Attendance is free of charge, but registration is required to secure your place via this email address: ags@ulb.be
 

Abstract : 
 

Since the 1970s, historians have claimed that an insatiable 'will to know' has powered the growing concern with homosexuality across Europe and the West, especially from the late nineteenth century onwards. In Unwilling To Know, Wannes Dupont challenges this dominant narrative by demonstrating how and why, unlike in neighboring France, Germany, Britain, and the Netherlands, a mixture of silence and code surrounded homosexuality in Belgium until well after the Second World War. Through internationally comparative analyses, and with particular reference to the importance of religion, he complicates overly monolithic views of European or Western developments based on a handful of familiar national cases.
 

Biography :

Wannes Dupont is a Lecturer in the History of Sexuality at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on queer history, reproductive politics, and the intersections of biopolitics and religion. He has previously published articles in journals such as History Workshop Journal and the Journal of the History of Sexuality and is currently working on the politicisation of sex in the international community during the early Cold War era.