I'll be presenting a new paper, 'CHINWAG – stigma, identity, and counterpublic health promotion ' at Evolving knowledge and practice: 11th Social Research Conference on HIV, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases , at UNSW in April.

I'm also happy to announce the publication of this co-authored journal article:

McKee, Alan, Albury, Kath, Dunne, Michael, Grieshaber, Sue, Hartley, John, Lumby, Catharine and Mathews, Ben (2010) 'Healthy Sexual Development: A Multidisciplinary Framework for Research ', International Journal of Sexual Health, 22: 1, 14 – 19

Web access is free for a short time only.

I'm also happy to announce this new resource from the AIDS Council of NSW Young Women's Project. I wasn't involved in the project itself, but was invited to review it just prior to publication.

From the authors:

Welcome to "The Birds & the Birds: The Lesbian Sex Workbook" – the first booklet of its kind for young, same-sex attracted women. This workbook targets young women
of all sexual identities who find other women attractive (e.g. lesbian, bisexual, straight, queer, no label, etc). It’s a response to the lack of coverage of lesbian sex in the majority of sex education and has been developed by, for and in consultation and collaboration with young same-sex attracted women.
 

I am very excited to have the opportunity to attend this event next year. I'm sure I'll learn a lot:

Investigating Young People's Sexual Cultures

A One-Day Symposium

A British Academy Funded Project

Co-ordinated by Dr Feona Attwood (Sheffield Hallam) and Dr Clarissa Smith (Sunderland)

Monday 18 January 2010 10am – 6pm
University of London Union, 1 Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY

Sessions and Speakers:

Young People and Sexual Health
Petra Boynton (UCL, London) Roger Ingham (University of Southampton), Clare Bale (University of Sheffield)

Investigating Young People's Sexual Cultures: Methods and Ethics
Sara Bragg (Open University), Mary Jane Kehily (Open University), Mark Limmer (Teenage Pregnancy Co-ordinator, Rochdale/Lancaster University)

Young People and Sexualized Culture
Rosalind Gill (Open University), Jessica Ringrose (Institute of Education), Emma Renold (Cardiff University)

The symposium will examine ways of developing research on young people's sexual cultures, building on existing work on young people, sex and relationships within the context of a ‘sexualized' and media-saturated culture. Sex education and media literacy emerge as important factors in the way young people develop sexual knowledge and form mature sexual identities. Academic work and governmental policies highlight both as crucial for the development of cultural citizenship and for personal, social and health education, and for participation in society. Media literacy and sex education both remain undeveloped in the UK, and the study of young people's engagements with sexual issues remains a relatively unexplored area. The symposium will explore the theoretical, ethical and methodological issues at stake in this area of work, reviewing existing knowledge and discussing the possibilities for innovative research across disciplinary and professional boundaries.

Attendance is free but places are limited so please confirm your place with
Clarissa Smith via email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it before 19 December 2009.

Dr Clarissa Smith
Programme Leader, MAs in Film, Media & Cultural Studies

Earlier this year, I was invited to produce a one-day module, 'Media and sexuality', for an International Short Course in Critical Sexuality Theory and Research Methodologies, which was funded by the Ford Foundation and developed by the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) in conjunction with the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society (IASSCS).

The module was piloted in July 2009 in Mombasa, Kenya, with participants from both Kenya and Uganda, and again in August in Surabaya, Indonesia, with participants from across Indonesia, and received positive evaluations from course participants. Updates on the course can be found on the excellent Sexuality Studies.net blog.

Research Presentations

I presented at two forums this month discussing the proposed Australian internet filtering legistation in an international context. Both presentations came out of a work-in-progress collaboration with Kate Crawford and Nina Funnell at the Journalism and Media Research Centre, considering debates around young people, mobile & social media, regulation and sexual citizenship.

The first was a workshop on Internet Regulation and Filtering in Australia and the Asia-Pacific, hosted by Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies at the University of Wollongong, on November 30 and December 1 2009

The second was a Fibreculture Roundtable on Freedom and Control on the Internet, chaired by fibreculture facilitators, Chris Chesher, Anna Munster and Geert Lovink.

Sorry I promised a newsletter and never delivered! Here's some news on what I'm up to at the moment.

I have a short article on 'Reading Porn Reparatively' in the October issue of the journal Sexualities. It's generally available to subscribers only, but it should be accessible through most university libraries. If you're quick, you can access a free sample.

I also have co-authored a chapter with my colleague Catharine Lumby, which will appear in the third edition of the (now classic) media textbook 'The Media and Communications in Australia' (Stuart Cunningham and Graeme Turner (eds). The book (and our chapter, 'Sport, Sex and Politics'), will be published by Allen & Unwin in January, 2010. You can read a sample chapter.

I'm also proud to be presenting a paper co-authored by my NAPWA friends/colleagues Brent Beadle and John Rule, and the wonderful Tobin Saunders at the next month's Somatechnics conference, organised by the Somatechnics Research Centre at Macquarie University. The paper discusses ways that HIV positive gay men's experiences of sexuality are embodied in the Chinwag Positive Living forums Tobin & I co-host (as Vanessa Wagner and Nurse Nancy).

If you're a fan of Tobin/Vanessa (or you're curious!), you might enjoy the award winning documentary film 'Undressing Vanessa ', produced by Matthew Pond and Tina Lymberis.

Cheers, Kath Albury

I was on the Advisory Committee for this campaign, along with my UNSW colleagues Dr Clifton Evers (from the Journalism and Media Research Centre), Professor John De Wit (National Centre for HIV Social Research) and Associate Professor Juliet Richters (School of Public Health and Community Medicine). After many meetings over many months, I’m really happy with the result.

The campaign is primarily pitched at young heterosexuals, but there are complementary campaigns for gay men, indigenous people and GPs.

You can find out more about the campaign here: http://gettested.com.au

I'm happy to announce my new job. I'm now an ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Social Research in Journalism and Communications at the University of New South Wales. For media and other enquiries my best  contact number at the University is +61 2 9385 8533.

In addition to continuing my research on sexuality in media and popular culture, I'm working full-time on a collaborative project funded by the Australian Research Council, The National Rugby League, and the NSW Rape Crisis Centre.