Asia’s Population Bomb: Contraception, Catholicism and Culture War at the UN, 1945-1965
Wannes Dupont (University of Edinburgh, professeur invité MSH)
Abstract: In the wake of war, Asian mortality rates plummeted and population growth soared. Modernisation theory and Cold War calculus prompted pressure on the newly created United Nations to embrace birth control programmes. In response, the Vatican successfully rallied Catholic governments to block such initiatives. This talk traces the history of the first major battle in a still-raging global culture war, the memory of which often does not stretch further back than the Cairo conference of 1994.
Biography : Wannes Dupont is Lecturer in the History of Sexuality at the University of Edinburgh. He previously held positions at Yale-NUS College and Utrecht University and fellowships at Yale University, Australian National University and the University of Antwerp. His work, publications, and teaching primarily concern the European and global history of sexuality, reproductive politics, and the intersections of biopolitics and religion.
Tuesday 23 May
5-7 pm, Henri Janne Room, S building, 15th floor
Contact et inscriptions : ags@ulb.be