Talk: Representation of Intersex

Representations of intersex in best-selling undergraduate psychology textbooks in the United States: Uneven critique in an ongoing scientific and ethical crisis

Professor Peter Hegarty, Open University, UK

The field of intersex studies is growing and its demands on psychologist are changing. This talk will centre on a recent review of how 20 best-selling USA psychology textbooks covered the topic of intersex. The reading is informed by the positioning of textbooks in markets and classrooms, and on past studies critiquing psychology textbooks for their engagement with common sense understandings and their individualism. I will illustrate the analysis with textual and visual examples of promising and problematic representation of different variations in sex characteristics. I conclude with suggestions about how critical resources that already exist within the textbook genre can be applied to develop it.

Peter Hegarty is a social psychologist and historian of psychology with interests in sexuality and gender, and cognition and language. He studied at Trinity College Dublin and Stanford University, and taught at the City University of New York, Yale University, the University of Surrey, the University of Michigan, and Université Libre de Bruxelles.

He currently chairs the steering group of the professional group PSI- I (Psychosocial Studies Intersex - International) and serves on the American Psychological Association's Task Force on Differences of Sex Development.