Welcome to Social Science 378: Human Sexualities, a three-credit, senior-level course that provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary introduction to the study of human sexualities. Diverse sexualities raise issues that impact on many aspects of life and society, and this eight-part course addresses a number of these issues from various perspectives. The primary goal of the course is to have you acquire a broad range of knowledge and information about human sexuality, which should help you to think critically about the content presented in this course.

The course acknowledges sexual diversity while recognizing that being sexual is an essential part of being human. The sexual attitudes, beliefs, and customs that occur within and across cultures provide the basic subject matter for the study of human sexualities. This course examines sexual practices and ideologies in a global context. It also considers the issues of gender and sexual orientation in both local and global contexts, and concludes with a look at important sexual issues such as AIDS, female genital cutting, and sex workers as they occur in different cultural contexts.

Few subjects have as much potential for eliciting different and often, conflicting, opinions, and as you will quickly discover, many of the opinions expressed in this course are controversial. Social Science 378 recognizes the plurality of the views on topics related to sexualities, and thus, takes a nonprescriptive approach to its study by presenting different perspectives. It is always important to respect the views and feelings of others but still maintain a critical stance. It also important to ensure that the opinions you have on these topics are both informed and supported by reliable academic sources. It is hoped that in the process of completing this course you will gain some ability in these areas.