He, She and They: Evolutionary Biology of Sex

Lecture: What "sex" means in evolutionary biology

"Nature created man and woman for reproduction." It seems there is nothing controversial in that sentence. But what if we examine it from a biological perspective — and find that even the prepositions are wrong?

In this lecture we'll talk about what "sex" really means in evolutionary biology and why it is much more complicated than chromosomes and genitals. We'll go through different levels of defining sex — from genetic and chromosomal to hormonal, somatic and social — discuss intersex variations and the diversity of sexual strategies in nature. Why do some organisms exhibit forms of hermaphroditism, while fungi have thousands of mating types? What does the sexual process do from an evolutionary point of view and why does nature favour diversity?

After the lecture

After the lecture there will be an informal discussion and an open mic. We'll talk about how biological arguments are used in queerphobic rhetoric, why "it's not natural" is a poor argument, as well as about life in the queer community in emigration and how to talk about gender transition sensitively and without unnecessary myths.

Speaker

David Kolesnik — holds a Master's degree in Paleobiology from Opole University (Poland), a researcher and science communicator. He is an openly transgender man and a political emigrant. He previously worked as a senior research fellow at the Museum of Permian Antiquities. He first started giving this lecture there — as an attempt to provide humanities scholars and human rights defenders with scientific arguments for conversations about the biology of sex and against hate rhetoric.

Location

Location: Vojvode Dobrnjca 48, Belgrade

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