Ecosexuality: When Ecology and Sexuality Come Together

Ecosexuality: When Ecology and Sexuality Come Together

This is a new academic course that can be taught as a seminar, at the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels. 

The course is dedicated to exploring ecosexuality, as a social movement, a style of amorous and creative expression, a cosmic theory, an orientation, and a practice of love. 

What is ecosexuality?  How did the concept come about and why it matters?  How can it help us to explore the intersections between ecology and sexuality, science and the humanities, global and personal health and love?  How does ecosexuality intersect with other orientations and practices of love, including those common among gays, bis, straights, polys, swingers, metrosexuals, and so on?  How does ecosexuality contribute to defining our relationship to the environment, to technology, the natural elements, and the web of life that sustains our species?  Is nature our enemy, mother, hostess, all of the above? 
      A number of recent sources touch on the theme of ecosexuality.  They include books and articles that study and analyze cultural expression, films, dvds, websites, and other educational and documentary cultural texts.  Some of those in the assigned reading list may include: Sexual Fluidity, by Lisa Diamond; Sex at Dawn, by Christopher Ryan and Calcida Jetha; Gaia and the New Poltics of Love, by Serena Anderlini; Polyamory in the 21st Century, by Deborah Anapol; Mystery Dance, by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan; Microcosmos and Acquiring Genomes by Lynn Margulis; Sirens, by John Duigan; Shortbus, by John Cameron Mitchell; An Inconvenient Truth, by Davis Guggenheim; Sluts and Goddesses by Annie Sprinkle, Love Art Lab by Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens; French Twist by Josiane Balasko, The Ignorant Fairies by Ferzan Ozpetek, and Science of Panic, by Patrizia Monzani.

Dr. Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD, gave the opening remarks at the world's first Symposium on Ecosexuality in Los Angeles on Oct 24, 2010, and keynoted at the second Symposium on Ecosexuality in San Francisco on June 18, 2011.  She will keynote at the upcoming EcoSex Symposium in Portland on June 29, 2012.  She is the author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love, a seminal text of ecosexual theory.  She blogs at http://polyplanet.blogspot.com
       Research paper expected at end of course.
Email questions for Dr. Anderlini at serena.anderlini@gmail.com

The Earth as Lover, art credit to Megan Morman and Cindy Baker.