Introducing our new Associate Director: Dr. Wannes Dupont!

GENDER.ED is growing and we're thrilled to welcome a fantastic new Associate Director, Dr. Wannes Dupont, from History! Hemangini Gupta welcomes him to the team and introduces him to you in this brief exchange for our blog.

Hello Wannes! You’ve recently joined the University of Edinburgh and taken on a new role at GENDER.ED as Associate Director. Congratulations and (a belated) welcome! Tell us a bit about what brought you to Edinburgh?

Previously, I worked at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, teaching modern European history, but Yale and NUS parted ways and I was lucky enough to be able to take a new position at Edinburgh as a Lecturer in the History of Sexuality, starting in January of last year.

What are you researching at the moment?

I’ve just finished a comparative queer history of Belgium in the late 19th and early 20th century, which compares the situation there to that in neighbouring countries, especially Germany, France and the Netherlands. Now I’m working on the globalisation of sexuality as a policy issue during the early years of the United Nations and with a strong focus on the role of religion.

You taught a very popular lecture on histories of sexuality in GENDER.ED’s flagship course, Understanding Gender in the Contemporary World. What other classes do you teach?

This academic year, I’ve taught an Introduction to the Modern History of Sexuality. I’m also teaching a year-long special subject seminar called Sex, Decadence and Decay in Weimar Germany, which zooms in on the intersections of sexuality, gender and democracy.

What plans do you have for GENDER.ED?

There’s so much going on in GENDER.ED, so I’m mostly getting my bearings for now, but I’m very interested in nurturing international collaboration through the UNA EUROPA network. I’m currently focusing on a planned visit of UGEN, the network for gender and sexuality studies within UNA EUROPA. Of course, I’m also looking to strengthen the ties between GENDER.ED and the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology, where  a lot of teaching and research on genders and sexualities happens.

Edinburgh is a city that people often fall in love with immediately! What’s your transition here been like?

It’s a beautiful city to be sure and it’s especially lovely - as well as very walkable - in spring and summer. I confess that I had not been exposed to Northern European winters for a while, and they are something to get used to again!

You’re involved with many exciting initiatives on campus; if someone wanted to dive into the histories of gender and sexuality, where would you direct them?

Students interested in these topics for next year should definitely consult GENDER.ED’s Directory over the summer. I’ll be making sure that the courses we offer in HCA, if they aren’t already in the Directory, will get added as soon as possible!