On Saturday I decided to visit the Wellcome Trust's Institute of Sexology Exhibit after many, many, suggestions to do so by friends and colleagues. As a self-proclaimed 'sexologist-in-training' I was quite curious to see what this exhibit had to offer, particularly because of its association with the Kinsey Institute of America.
There was a bit of a wait since only so many people can be in the exhibit at once and also because it's FREE. I was handed a booklet with vague summary and history of some of the collection which also had a blank page at the back reserved for notes. I wish I had brought a pen with me but staff are also happy to lend a pen if you look excited and deranged enough.
On entering the exhibit, the first thing I saw was a chastity belt. I knew I had struck gold with this exhibit. I will admit that my research interests are a little out of the ordinary but this exhibit made me feel quite ordinary. There were illustrated scenes from the kama sutra, films of animals mating and even equipment from the famous experiments by Dr. Masters and Virginia Johnson. The exhibit was slightly out of my time period with the major case studies carried out on Freud, Stopes and Kinsey but it was interesting nonetheless and I would definitely go again. I would also encourage others to visit the exhibit to understand the discipline of sexology.
On Friday we have a Wellcome Trust Fellow from the University of Leicester coming to talk about her experience of life after the PhD. We encourage people to come along to ask Eureka questions about the process of applying for funding and fellowships after postgraduate study as well as about her current research project!
The link for details on the exhibit can be found here: http://wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/institute-sexology
