Gender/sex Identity is in the body. How did it get there?
Lecture by Anne Fausto-Sterling (Nancy Duke Lewis Professor Emerita of Biology and Gender Studies at Brown University), in the framework of the Ursula Hirschmann Lecture Series
5 November 2019, 17:00-19:00, Theatre, Badia Fiesolana
In this lecture, I will explore theoretical and empirical approaches to the development of gender/sex and sexual orientation. Leaving behind the nature versus nurture opposition, I look at both identities as deeply embodied. My approach intertwines sex, gender, orientation, bodies and cultures without demanding that we choose one over the other. Specifically, I provide insights from the fields of phenomenology, dyadic interaction and the formation of presymbolic representations in infancy and dynamic systems in infant development. I consider how thinking about embodied cognition helps to address intersubjectivity and the emergence of subjective identity.