This project aims to explain the formation of contemporary notions of sexuality in the interaction between biological research and other cultural contexts.


The project is based on two subsets of materials. Firstly, we analyze about 70 neuroimaging studies of human sexuality (i.e. brain studies of sexuality based on the imaging of brain function). With this analysis we primarily investigate which notions of sexuality that are reproduced in brain research on sexuality. Secondly, we explore how brain studies of sexuality are communicated publically in the Swedish context. Four aspects are analyzed here: How is brain research on sexuality argued for by researchers and financiers? How are the studies described in communication to the public? How do media shape that information? In which debates are the results of brain research on sexuality used?


As a whole, we aim to answer three main questions: What is sexuality in brain research? What knowledge does brain research claim to want to reach about human sexuality? How do the results of brain research shape broader socio-cultural understandings of sexuality?


This study will provide an understanding how knowledge of sexuality and gender is produced at the crossroads of science and culture. Our ambition is to contribute to the deconstruction of the dichotomic separation of culture and nature that affects both social/cultural and biological sciences of gender and sexuality