This seminar was created in 1997 by scholars associated with the Institute of Contemporary History in Dijon, the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, and the Laboratory of Historic Demography of the School of High Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS - Paris), according to the following principle:

The seminar will be organised into annual workshops that will be open to the public and focus on a precise theme. These sessions—devoted to listening to and discussing about six or seven papers—will be held every first Friday in October (the following Saturday is reserved for informal workshops and the planning of future events) in different cities under the direction of local research units. The host institution would be in charge of coordinating the workshop and be responsible for providing the funding to cover the expenses of paper presenters and other session coordinators who would like to attend the meeting.

In April 1999, the AMSAB (Archives and Museum of the Socialist Workers' Movement) in Ghent first organized a conference on the theme of "Sex and Class in the 20th Century" and an exhibition titled "Sex, Sexuality and Socialism." It was natural for us to tie our initiative to theirs. The AMSAB agreed to participate in the organization of the international seminar, "Socialism and Sexuality," and to host our inaugural session.

In October 2000, the International Institute of Social History organized a workshop on “Free Love and the Labour Movement” in Amsterdam. These papers have been published in the IISH-Research Papers. <> In October 2001, the Institute of Contemporary History organized a workshop on “Labour Organizations and Sexuality” in Dijon (papers to be published).

In October 2002, the Laboratory of Historic Demography (EEHSS) will host a workshop on "Psychoanalysis, Sexology, and Socialism Confront the Nationalistic Mobilization of Sexuality"("Psychanalyse, sexologie et socialisme face à la mobilisation nationaliste du sexe des populations") in Paris.

After 2002 our schedule is open. We are thus in search of institutions who would like to join us in our work by proposing new themes for our upcoming workshops and hosting these events. Plans for this could be discussed in Paris in October 2002.

For further information please contact Professor Francis Ronsin at the email address below.