Capitalizing on the Department of Sociology's strengths in researching and teaching sexuality, five sociology faculty members developed a Sexuality and Society reader to be used as a text in Sexuality and Society courses. The text was published by Allyn & Bacon in 2003.

• Chapter 1: Categorizing Sex
• Chapter 2: Researching Sexuality
• Chapter 3: Representing Sex in our Culture
• Chapter 4: Learning about Sex
• Chapter 5: The Sexual Body
• Chapter 6: Sexual Practices
• Chapter 7: Contraception, Abortion, and Procreation
• Chapter 8: Sexual Health and Disease
• Chapter 9: Social Control of Sexuality
• Chapter 10: Sexual Violence
• Chapter 11: Commercial Sex

   Other features of the text include interviews with active sex researchers and chapter-specific "crumple surveys" used to assess student sexual behavior and attitudes in larger classes.

Dawn M. Baunach, Ph.D. After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, Dr. Baunach joined the sociology faculty at Georgia State University in 1996. Her research interests include inequality and stratification, gender and sexuality, work and occupations, and social demography. Dr. Baunach approaches the study of inequality from a structural standpoint, freq uently in a macro context, and uses various quantitative techniques in her research. Much of Dr. Baunach's research concerns gender inequalities in the labor force, including wage differentials, occupational segregation, labor force participation, affirma tive action, and inequality. Dr. Baunach enjoys teaching courses in statistics, gender, sexuality and food.

Elisabeth O. Burgess, Ph.D. After receiving her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Southern California, Dr. Burgess joined the fac ulty at Georgia State University as an Assistant Professor in September 1997. Her current research focuses on change in intimate relationships over the life course, including involuntary celibacy, marital satisfaction over time, and intergenerational rela tionships. Dr. Burgess regularly teaches courses on the sociology of family, sociology of sexuality, aging and society, and life course sociology.

Denise Donnelly, Ph.D. , is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. She rece ived her Ph.D. at the University of Florida in 1990, and completed a two-year National Institutes of Mental Health Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Family Research Lab, University of New Hampshire. Dr. Donnelly has been at GSU since 1993. Her research inte rests include: sexless marriages, involuntary celibacy, women in sado-masochistic relationships, services to battered women, and culturally competent approaches to ending violence.

Wendy Simonds, Ph.D. Dr. Simonds earned her Ph.D. in 1990 from City University of New York.  She is author of Abortion at Work: Ideology and practice in a feminist clinic (Rutgers, 1996), Women and self-help culture: Reading between the lines (Rutgers, 1992), and co-author with Barbara Katz Rothman of Centuries of Solace: Expressions of maternal grief in popul ar literature (Temple, 1992).  She has done research on medical abortion (mifepristone or "RU-486"), emergency contraception, and is now working on a study of birth attendants in the U.S.  Dr. Simonds teaches courses on birth and parenthoo d, gender, sexual identity, cultural studies, and sociological theory.

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The student population at Georgia State University represents a diverse group. The percentage of students from minority groups has shown gradual, constant growth over the past six years, as shown in the table below.

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This is exactly what a team of researchers at Georgia State University has uncovered. While there are many Internet surveys that investigate the topic of sex, researchers at Georgia State University have discovered that invo luntary celibacy, having the desire for sex, but unable to find a willing partner, is an area of concern for many individuals. The investigators of this research are interested in a variety of topics ranging from childhood experiences to current relations hips. From Spring 1999 through Summer 2000, this team collected web-based surveys from over 300 involuntary celibates around the world.

Preliminary results from the study were published in two articles during summer of 2001. The first, "Involuntary Celibacy: A Life Course Analysis" appeared in Journal of Sex Research, Vol.38, No.2, in May, and the second, "Surfing fo r Sex: Studying Involuntary Celibacy Using the Internet" appeared in Sexuality and Culture, Vol.5, No.3, in Summer 2001. The research team is currently working on two additional manuscripts, one entitled, "Stigma and Stereotype: Involuntary Virgi nity" and the other entitled, "When You're Married, You Kind of Expect a Little Sex: The Paradox of Marital Celibacy." A book length project is planned for 2002.

If you are interested in learning more about the involuntary celibacy survey or the results of this research , please contact Dr. Denise Donnelly at socdad@panther.gsu.edu or Dr. Elisabeth Burgess at soceob@langate.gsu.edu. In addition, if you are interested in sharing your experiences with others, please visit the involuntary celibacy webpage at http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ad097/ic-home.html.

A bit about our researchers :

Denise A. Donnelly, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. She received her Ph.D. at the Universit y of Florida in 1990, and completed a two-year National Institutes of Mental Health Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Family Research Lab, University of New Hampshire. Dr. Donnelly has been at GSU since 1993. Her research interests include: sexless marriage s, involuntary celibacy, women in sado-masochistic relationships, services to battered women, and culturally competent approaches to ending violence.

Elisabeth O. Burgess, Ph.D. After receiving her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Southern California, Elisabeth joined the faculty at Georgia State University as an Assistant Professor in September 1997. Her current research focuses on change in intimate relationships over the life course, including involuntary celibacy, marital satisfaction over time, and intergeneraltional relationships. Dr. Burgess regularly t eaches courses on the sociology of family, sociology of sexuality, aging and society, and life course sociology.

Regina L. Davis , M.A. Regina is a former graduate student in the Sociology Department at Georgia State University. Her research interests include: poverty, illegitimacy, intergenerational transmission of values and black fem inist thought.

Sally R. Anderson , B.S. Sally received her Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Georgia State University. She is interested in community based programs such as societal intervention, and has been involved in memory research, with a particular emphasis on the Von Restorff effect.

Joy Dillard, M.A.   Joy recently completed the Master's program in Sociology at Georgia State.  Her interests include: sexual and intimate violence, violence against women, and treatment approaches for survivo rs of rape and incest.

The research team would like to acknowledge Alana Boltwood and thank her for all of her efforts and contributions to this project.

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