Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies

Museum professionals have long grappled with the problems of
identity-based exclusion within museum exhibits, programs, and collections.  Considering the diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in our communities, including the stories of all the identities that make up our communities
has proven to be a challenge. The idea that identities do not operate alone but intersect with each other in dynamic and complex ways—that identities are intersectional—presents new possibilities for solving the challenges of identity-based inclusion. This article briefly introduces the foundations of
intersectional theory and how this theory addresses challenges faced by museum professionals. Specific examples of how this critical feminist approach might function in museum spaces are presented. Building on these examples, this essay investigates the practical possibilities for addressing the challenges of identity-based inclusion in museum work.

Most contemporary chemists consider quantum mechanics to be the foundational theory of their discipline, although few of the calculations that a strict reduction would seem to require have ever been produced. In this essay I discuss contemporary algebraic and diagrammatic representations of molecular systems derived from quantum mechanical models, specifically configuration interaction wavefunctions for ab initio calculations and molecular orbital energy diagrams. My aim is to suggest that recent dissatisfaction with reductive accounts of chemical theory may stem from both the inability of standard accounts of reduction to incorporate the diverse forms of representation found in chemical practice and our philosophical predilection to analyze all connections between theories in terms of logical reduction.

This essay explores the connection between representation and explanation in the sciences. I suggest that scientific representation schemes be viewed as pragmatic tools for acquiring the sort of articulated awareness that is the hallmark of nontrivial knowledge. Crystal field theory in chemistry illustrates this perspective. Certain representations achieve the status of being paradigmatically explanatory, thereby shaping models of intelligibility. In turn, these explanatory preferences serve largely to define and differentiate disciplinary communities by implicitly endorsing particular epistemic aims and values. In this way, the pragmatic nature of explanatory discourse effectively grants its intellectual utility.

Using the ideal gas law as a comparative example, this essay reviews contemporary research in philosophy of science concerning scientific explanation. It outlines the inferential, causal, unification, and erotetic conceptions of explanation and discusses an alternative project, the functional perspective. In each case, the aim is to highlight insights from these investigations that are salient for pedagogical concerns. Perhaps most importantly, this essay argues that science teachers should be mindful of the normative and prescriptive components of explanatory discourse both in the classroom and in science more generally. Giving attention to this dimension of explanation not only will do justice to the nature of explanatory activity in science but also will support the development of robust reasoning skills in science students while helping them understand an important respect in which science is more than a straightforward collection of empirical facts, and consequently, science education involves more than simply learning them.

In this essay the introduction of quantum mechanics into chemistry serves as a case study of representational innovation in science.  Because the basic complexity of quantum-mechanical representations of molecular systems eliminates the possibility of analytic solutions to the corresponding equations, approximation techniques and issues of computational tractability take center stage.  Largely abstract mathematical techniques must work hand in hand with significant pieces of pre-existing knowledge, both conceptual and empirical, to generate results of chemical significance.  An important consequence of this specific integration of mathematical techniques with pre-existing knowledge is the development of new, amalgamated chemical concepts that are not derived directly from quantum theory and yet are direct descendants of it.  This new conceptual repertoire is accompanied by a dramatic development in alternative representational resources, diagrammatic schemes, that allow the incorporation of the new chemical concepts into disciplinary contexts within chemistry that were essentially isolated from the original mathematical resources of quantum theory.

Philosophy of science offers a rich lineage of analysis concerning the nature of scientific explanation, but the vast majority of this work, aiming to provide an analysis of the relation that binds a given explanans to its corresponding explanandum, presumes the proper analytic focus rests at the level of individual explanations. There are, however, other questions we could ask about explanation in science, such as: What role(s) does explanatory practice play in science? Shifting focus away from explanations, as achievements, toward explaining, as a coordinated activity of communities, the functional perspective aims to reveal how the practice of explanatory discourse functions within scientific communities given their more comprehensive aims and practices.  In this paper, I outline the functional perspective, argue that taking the functional perspective can reveal important methodological roles for explanation in science, and consequently, that beginning here provides resources for developing more adequate responses to traditional concerns. In particular, through an examination of the ideal gas law, I emphasize the normative status of explanations within scientific communities and discuss how such status underwrites a compelling rationale for explanatory power as a theoretical virtue.


Keywords: explanation, explanatory power, functional perspective, idealization, ideal gas law

Our research collaboration examines how the Modern Girl emerged as a global phenomenon in the first half of the twentieth century. By wearing provocative fashions and pursuing romantic love, Modern Girls everywhere appeared to disregard the roles of dutiful daughter, wife and mother. We develop the Modern Girl as a heuristic category that allows new insights into forces of globalisation and manifestations of gendered modernity. Through a case study of cosmetics advertising in China, India, South Africa, Germany and the United States, we show that the Modern Girl in each locale was shaped through multidirectional citations of elements from elsewhere, through transnational processes of racialisation and through distinct articulations of nationalism.

本文研究的合作婚姻（又名形式婚姻）是两个非异性恋者（男同志和女同志）协商的异性婚姻。自2005 年以来，合作婚姻的流行吸引了大众的关注和热烈讨论，但仍缺乏深入的实证研究。本研究使用质性研究方法，访谈20 位已进入合作婚姻的男女同志，跨越中国南北五个城市，目的在于了解他们进入合作婚姻的动机和生活经验，以及他们是如何实践家庭和性别的。本文将运用孝道与亲密关系、同志研究的理论，分析男女同志是如何面对当代中国经济、社会文化和法律的忽视和制约，理解他们的身份角色和实现他们的社会与个人欲望；以及合作婚姻的流行对于进一步理解性与性别、家庭与婚姻，和中国以至于东亚的性少数群体的生存策略的意义。

Cooperative marriage is a heterosexual marriage negotiated and performed by a lala (a woman with same-sex desire) and a gay man. Building on growing debates on cooperative marriage within the tongzhi community and on intensifying media
and academic attention, this thesis presents an empirical investigation of how gay men and lalas understand their experiences while in cooperative marriage. The study is based on in-depth interviews, participant observation and focus group
interviews of twenty-two gay men and lalas in cooperative marriage distributed across five cities in China: Beijing, Shenyang, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Foshan.

Among the questions addressed are: Why do gay men and lalas opt for this particular type of marriage? What are the lived experiences of sexual minorities facing cultural and institutional discrimination in China? What are the main living strategies and styles they adopt to cope with such discrimination? The study also
explores different ways of relating to others and some novel intimate practices emerging. It is shown that, in general, these are not in harmony with the heteronormative values that are dominating society today. The new ways and practices are therefore challenging criticism from liberal rights activists, particularly with regard to issues such as coming out.

I identify four types of orientations of gay men and lalas towards cooperative
marriage: familial, individual, pragmatic, and idealistic. These reveal how gay men and lalas understand their relations to other main players in their lives and strategize accordingly. Among the characteristics playing key roles in their decision making
are gender, being the single child of the family and co-residence with the parents in the same city (local vs. non-local).
It is shown that the lives of gay men and lalas in cooperative marriage are being complicated by the need to negotiate multiple relationships, e.g., with the marital
partner, the same-sex partner, the marital partner’s partner, the natal family, the in-laws, and the gay community around. I also theorize on the major types of politics of intimate relationships engaged in by gay men and lalas as they craft their
living spaces while in cooperative marriage.

Finally, I demonstrate that cooperative marriage has led to a new sub-cultural tongzhi movement where gay men and lalas build on the rapport they have developed with each other; e.g., they share information and experiences while
participating in semi-open public discussions and matchmaking events. This is leading to emergent types of new ethics within the community which have critically challenged the stereo types and dominant narratives on tongzhi strategizing.

This essay offers a feminist political economic analysis of the development of Chinese urbanbased LGBT activism since the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women. First, it meditates on the gendered politics within LGBT activism; second, it explores how LGBT groups' NGO-isation process in the context of transnational movements is playing out vis-à-vis the Party-State's attempts to eliminate organisations linked to the 'imperial West'. According to the author, the onset of a new era of precarity is calling for Chinese LGBT activists to come up with urgent and creative strategies for survival and care.