Gilbert Herdt | |
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 Gilbert Herdt in 2019 | |
| Born | (1949-02-24)February 24, 1949 (age 76) |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | University of Washington, Australian National University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Human Sexuality,Anthropology |
| Institutions | Stanford University,University of Chicago and others |
| Academic advisors | Roger M. Keesing, Derek Freeman, Robert J. Stoller |
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Gilbert H. Herdt (born February 24, 1949) is Emeritus Professor ofHuman Sexuality Studies andAnthropology and a Founder of the Department of Sexuality Studies andNational Sexuality Resource Center atSan Francisco State University. He founded the Summer Institute on Sexuality and Society at the University of Amsterdam (1996). He founded the PhD Program in Human Sexuality at the California Institute for Integral Studies, San Francisco (2013). He conducted long term field work among the Sambia people of Papua New Guinea, and has written widely on the nature and variation in human sexual expression in Papua New Guinea, Melanesia, and across culture.
Herdt is a research scholar, advocate for human sexuality, and a gay activist[1][2] who has taught atStanford University, theUniversity of Chicago, theUniversity of Amsterdam, and theUniversity of Washington. In 2000, Herdt cofounded theInstitute on Sexuality, Social Inequality and Health that studies all forms of sexuality and discrimination that affect community building, sexual culture and sexual health.
He specializes in the anthropology of sexuality, sexual orientation, sexual cultures, and the development of gender identity and sexual expression. His studies of the 'Sambia' people — a pseudonym he created — ofPapua New Guinea analyzes how culture and society create sexual meanings andpractices. The Sambia are unique in that in the past they require males to undergo three specific sexual phases in their lives. Boys must provide sexual service toyoung men, adolescents must then receiveoral sex from boys, and males enter adulthood by becomingheterosexual.[3]
Herdt also wrote about thebinabinaaine ofKiribati andTuvalu, describing how they are known for their performances and their ability to comment on the appearance and behaviour of Tuvaluan men. He also wrote that some Tuvaluans view binabinaaine as a "borrowing" from Kiribati, whence other "'undesirable' traits of Tuvaluan culture, like sorcery, are thought to have originated". He also described how, inFunafuti, young women are often friends with older binabinaaine.[4]
In the United States, Herdt has also studiedadolescents and their families, the emergence ofHIV andgay culture, and the role thatsocial policy plays insexual health.
He has written and edited some 36 books, and more than 100 scientific papers. He is also the general editor ofWorlds of Desire, and an associate editor ofJournal of Culture, Sexuality, and Health,Journal of Men and Masculinities, andTransaction: Journal of Social Science and Modern Society.[5]
Herdt is the recipient of various awards andresearch grants, including:
