Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture (CSSC)
The Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture (CSSC) is the first research facility in the UK to focus exclusively on the interrelationships of sexuality, gender, culture, and history.
With affiliated staff drawn from disciplines across the University, and through partnerships with local and international organisations, arts centres and networks, the Centre fosters pioneering scholarship alongside a commitment to arts activism that challenges current understandings of sexuality and gender.
On 16 April 2025, the UK Supreme Court issued a ruling on the meaning of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010. Members of the Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture have responded to this – read the response.
The banner image above features the artistic director of award-winning company Trans Creative, Kate O’Donnell, and Manchester-based drag superstar, Cheddar Gorgeous, whose public event ‘A queer dialogue on trans and drag’ closed the 2019 Sexuality Summer School.
Sexuality Summer School (SSS) 2026
24-29 May 2026
Please join us for another fantastic week of postgraduate workshops and seminars, accompanied by an exciting programme of public events based at The University of Manchester and other venues across the city.
Over the five days of the SSS, postgraduate students will have the opportunity to discuss the history, politics and changing registers of biological discourses of sex, race and sexuality in relation to their current research or creative practices.
In recent years, the category of the biological has been hotly contested, resulting in polemical and polarised public debate. The SSS will provide a much-needed forum for thoughtful discussion led by intellectual curiosity. Our discussions will draw together debates in queer theory, gender and sexuality studies, critical race studies, and feminist technoscience studies. We will read and discuss new work, including by keynote speakers C. Riley Snorton, Kane Race and Sarah Richardson; students will have the opportunity to discuss these in depth in seminars with the authors.
For sample schedules from previous years, please visit our blog. Full details of this year’s programme to follow there shortly.
Research areas
CSSC researchers are setting agendas in sexuality studies by exploring new paradigms and theoretical approaches in the following areas.
- Queer and trans historiography and temporalities
- Formations of subjectivity, including race, ethnicity and class
- Post-gay cultures
- Norms and normativities
- LGBTQ health and sexual politics
- Queer and feminist visual cultures
- AIDS writing and activism
- Queer cultural theory
CSSC runs an interdisciplinary master's course on Gender, Sexuality and Culture.
Academic and postgraduate members of the Centre regularly organise research seminars and events on feminist and queer debates. These include:
- the Manchester Queer Research Network, which runs regular reading groups and events;
- the Centre’s annual Sexuality Summer School (SSS), which takes place each May, providing scholarly conversations for postgraduate students alongside a curated programme of queer cultural events in partnership with Manchester arts organisations;
- to receive information about the Centre and its events please join our mailing list.
