David Alderson

Biography

My interests in sexuality studies have resulted in an immensely productive collaboration with my colleague Laura Doan (also in English and American Studies here at Manchester) We established the interdisciplinary MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture - the most wide-ranging and diverse programme of its kind in the UK - in 2003. In addition to this, Laura and I set up and co-direct the Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture, the inaugural event for which was the highly successful Sexuality After Foucault conference on 28th-30th November 2003, attended by 300 delegates from around 20 countries. As part of the Centre's activities I organised another conference - Queer Politics and Cultural Production: The Work of Alan Sinfield - in July 2004. Since 2008/09, we have held a annual Queer Methodologies seminar series, bringing visiting speakers from the UK and US to give talks. I am currently Research Director for English and American Studies.

Research Interest

Though my PhD focused on 19th century literature and culture, and specifically on Protestant-Catholic debates as these related to both gender and national identity, I am now working on contemporary material. In particular, I am interested in the relations between neoliberalism, gender and sexuality, and am working on a book that focuses on 'post-gay culture.' That term is not mine, nor am I keen to promote it. It has, moreover, been used in directly contradictory ways: on the one hand, to refer to the possibilities for gay assimilation; and, on the other, to refer to the need to rediscover a politics of sexuality now that 'gay' has apparently become the mark of assimilation. I am interested in these positions and the tensions between them, but also in the complex ways they relate to the marketization of sexuality.