Speakers:
- David M. Halperin (editor), W. H. Auden Distinguished University Professor of the History and Theory of Sexuality, English Department, University of Michigan
- Trevor Hoppe (editor), Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
- Sara McClelland, Associate Professor of Psychology & Women's Studies, University of Michigan
- J.J. Prescott, Professor of Law, University of Michigan

The past fifty years are conventionally understood to have witnessed an uninterrupted expansion of sexual rights and liberties in the United States. This state-of-the-art collection tells a different story: while progress has been made in marriage equality, reproductive rights, access to birth control, and other areas, government and civil society are waging a war on stigmatized sex by means of law, surveillance, and social control. The contributors document the history and operation of sex offender registries and the criminalization of HIV, as well as highly punitive measures against sex work that do more to harm women than to combat human trafficking. They reveal that sex crimes are punished more harshly than other crimes, while new legal and administrative regulations drastically restrict who is permitted to have sex. By examining how the ever-intensifying war on sex affects both privileged and marginalized communities, the essays collected here show why sexual liberation is indispensable to social justice and human rights.

This event is part of IRWG's Gender: New Works, New Questions series, which spotlights recent publications by U-M faculty members and allows for deeper discussion by an interdisciplinary panel.