As part of my SNSF-CMCSS research project “Polluted Nights: Masculinity and Medicine in4 Switzerland and France (18th-20th Century)”1 , I am preparing the publication of an edited volume on the longue durée history of semen (human, animal, and plant) with the publishing house Brepols, as part of the series Generation2.
At the crossroads of the history of medicine and science, of gender and sexualities, this project aims to revisit the history of seed3: its scientific controversies and its implications in medical practice and the clinic, as well as its social, cultural, political, religious issues.
While it was long approached from a purely natural history perspective, the study of seed, thanks in particular to progress in gender studies, now allows insights into the porosity, hybridisation and performative capacity of a research object.
We aim to cover the following topics (not an exhaustive list) in the edited volume:
- Epistemology of seed
- The history of female seed/semen
- Scientific and lay methods for distinguishing plant and animal seeds/semen
- Seed and semen in relation to the separation of species
- Seed and semen as a bias to produce categories of sex, race, class, and sexualities
- The masculinisation of semen and of its virile characteristics
- The history of the physiology of seed/semen
- The history of diseases with regard to seed/semen
- Seed/semen in relation to fertility, fertilisation, reproduction and sexuality
- Seed/semen as an object captured by different disciplines and professions
- Seed/semen as an agent for renegotiating the boundaries between the stages of life (childhood, youth, puberty, adulthood, old age, etc.)
- Seminal discharges as an issue of hegemonic and subaltern masculinities
- Representations and medical practices relating to semen in non-Western medicine (Ayurvedic, for example)
- The history of involuntary nocturnal seminal discharge/erotic dreams/wet dreams...
- Iconographies of semen/seed
- Seed/Semen and religious faiths
Abstracts should be one page, setting out the topic, question, methods, and so on, and should also be accompanied by a biography consisting of one page maximum. They should be emailed to <wdrecherche@gmail.com> by the 30th of January 2025.
A reply will be provided by the 17th of February 2025.
Provisional timeline:
30 January 2025: receipt of abstracts (one page).
17 February 2025: selection of proposals.
15 September 2025: receipt of chapters (in English/French, 15,000-45,000 characters). Peer review and application for OA funding from the SNSF.
2026: publication (paper and OA gold).
Scientific Committee of the edited volume
Francesca Arena (Unige), Jean-Baptiste Bonnard (Université de Caen Normandie), Fabrice Brandli (Unige), Rosa Cid (Universidad de Oviedo) Sébastien Chauvin (Unil), Nahema Hanafi (Université d’Angers), João Florêncio (Linköpings universitet), Marie Leyder (Unige), Barbara Orland (Unibas), Felix Rietmann (Unifr), Brigitte Roux (Unige), Martina Salvante (University of Nottingham), Hubert Steinke (Unibe), Nina Studer (Unige).
The series Generation with Brepols: https://www.brepols.net/series/GEN
1https://www.unige.ch/cmcss/recherche/recherches/projets-actuellement-soutenus/les-pollutions-nocturnes
https://wetdreams.hypotheses.org/a-propos
2This series also published our book on breastfeeding (title: “Allaiter”). See here for the OA version: https://www.brepolsonline.net/action/showBook?doi=10.1484%2FM.GEN-EB.5.125574
3 The use of the term ‘seed’ – instead of ‘semen’ – which is still employed by physicians in the modern age to indicate the substance of generation, makes it possible to highlight new aspects/dimensions/levels of knowledge and practices.