News 2015

 


  1. • So sad to be leaving Juchitán after an amazing first fieldseason during which Francisco and I met so many wonderful new friends.  Here are some more photos.


  1. •A new commentary by Paul L Vasey, Doug P. VanderLaan, Raymond Hames & Amornthep Jaidee entitled “A Problematic Test of the Kin Selection Hypothesis Among the Urak-Lawoi of Ko Lipe, Thailand: Commentary on Camperio Ciani, Battaglia, and Liotta (2015)” was published in the Journal of Sex Research.


  1. • An new article by Doug P. VanderLaan, Lanna J. Petterson & Paul L. Vasey entitled “Femininity and Kin Directed Altruism in Homosexual Men: A Test of An Evolutionary Developmental Model” was published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.


  1. • So excited to be in Juchitán for La Vela de las Intrepidas!  Here are some photos.


  1. • Happy campers.  Vasey lab retreat to Santa Fe!


  1. • Finally!  Photos from the 2015 Puzzle of Sexual Orientation conference.  Here’s some feedback about the conferences from the participants.


  1. • Scott Semenyna’s poster presentation at the 2015 SSSS meeting generated lots of interest!  Here’s a photo.


  1. • Lanna Petterson gave a great talk on her MSc research at the 2015 Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality conference.  Here’s a photo.


  1. • It was such at treat getting to spend time in Albuquerque with the wonderful Jane Lancaster, editor of Human Nature.  Here’s a photo.


  1. • Thanks to Siobhán Mattison for inviting me to speak in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico.


  1. • So proud of my former doctoral student and Post-doctoral Fellow, Doug VanderLaan, who gave an amazing plenary address at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality conference summarizing over a decade of our research.  Here are some photos.


  1. • A BIG congratulations to Scott Semenyna for successfully defending his MSc thesis on bullying and aggression in Samoa.  Great job all around Scott! 


  1. • Just back. Another field trip to Samoa nailed with the best research assistant in the world, Trisha.


  1. • Back in Osaka for data collection at the Rainbow Festa 2015 -- and we surpassed our sample targets (again)! Here are some photos.


  1. • Paul Vasey, Lanna Petterson, Scott Semenyna, Lucas Court and Francisco Gómez attended the Canadian Sex Research Forum in Kelowna, British Columbia, where they presented the following posters and podium presentations:

Court, L. & Vasey, P.L.

        The evolutionary history of role-specialization among transgender male androphiles. Presented at the Canadian Sex Research Forum, October 2015, Kelowna, BC, Canada. 

        Here is a photo of Lucas presenting his poster to Francisco.


Petterson, L.J., Semenyna, S., VanderLaan, D.P. & Vasey, P.L.

        Do the female kin of male androphiles produce more offspring? A replication study in Samoa. Presented at Canadian Sex Research Forum, October 2015, Kelowna, BC, Canada.

        Here is a photo of Lanna presenting at CSRF.


Semenyna, S. & Vasey, P.L.

        Sex and sexual orientation differences in occupational preference of Samoan men, women, and fa’afafine. Presented at the Canadian Sex Research Forum, October 2015, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

        Here is a photo of Scott presenting his poster to Kelly Suschinsky.


Here are some more photos from CSRF 2015 Kelowna.


  1. • Taking a break from meetings in San Francisco with Dr. Kate Frank to see Grace Jones in concert (definitely a bucket list moment for me!)


  1. • Paul Vasey was photographed by the artist Petra Malá Miller for her exhibition, Portraits in Light, at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery.


  1. • Scott Semenyna is the new North American student representative for the International Academy of Sex Research. Congratulations Scott!


  1. • Back in Toronto for meetings (and amazing food at my favourite new restaurant, Le Sélect Bistro) with Dr. Doug VanderLaan.


  1. • Paul Vasey was invited to speak at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario, with Kate Harkness (Queen’s University) & Maria Pacurar (Dalhousie University) as part of a SSHRC applicants mentorship program.


  1. • My research with Lesley Terry on Feederism was discussed by Dr. Justin Lehmiller in his Sex & Psychology blog entitled “Feederism Fetishes: The World of Erotic Eating and Weight Gain.”


  1. • A new article entitled “Comparative development of heterosexual and homosexual behaviors in free-ranging female Japanese macaques” by Jean-Baptiste Leca, Noëlle Gunst & Paul Vasey was published in the journal, Archives of Sexual Behavior.


  1. • The Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Chronicle of Higher Education, USA Today, and Academe Blog report on the Bad Girls controversy following Alice Dreger’s (regrettable) resignation from Northwestern University. My essay, In the Manner of a Bad Girl, appeared in the censored issue of Atrium.


  1. • Read the Globe & Mail article by Lori Brotto, “Sexual Orientation is More Complex than Straight, Gay or Bisexual”, which discusses the Puzzle of Sexual Orientation conference.


  1. • Conference marks U of L as leader in sexuality studies.


  1. • Paul Vasey and many of the Puzzle of Sexual Orientation conference attendees are quoted in the Boston Globe article “What makes people gay? (An update).”


  1. • Paul Vasey was quoted in the ScienceNews for Students articles by Amanda Mascarelli entitled “Gender: When the Body and the Brain Disagree” and “Male-Female Flexibility in Animals.”


  1. • An amazing meal at Toronto’s Buca with some amazing company!


  1. • Lanna Petterson was awarded a cash prize and “Honourable Mention” by the International Academy of Sex Research for their Student Research Development Award competition.  Congratulations Lanna and very well deserved!!!


  1. •Jean-Baptiste Leca presented the following invited lecture at the International Academy of Sex Research in Toronto:

Leca, J-B., Gunst, N. & Vasey, P.L. (2015). The hows and whys of non-conceptive sex in Japanese macaques. Presented at the International Academy of Sex Researchers, August 2015, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.


  1. • Paul Vasey, Lanna Petterson, Scott Semenyna and Lucas Court attended the International Academy of Sex Research in Toronto where they presented the following posters and podium presentations:

Court, L. & Vasey, P.L. (2015). The evolution of role specialization in transgender androphilic males. Presented at the International Academy of Sex Researchers, August 2015, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.


Petterson, L.J, Dixson, B.J., Little, A.C., Vasey, P.L. (2015). Revisiting bisexual in men: Evidence from Samoa. To be presented at the International Academy of Sex Researchers, August 2015, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.


Petterson, L. & Vasey, P.L. (2015). The lived experiences of Samoan men who have sex with fa’afafine.  Presented at the International Academy of Sex Researchers, August 2015, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.


Semenyna, S. W., & Vasey, P. L. (2015) Bullying, physical aggression, gender atypicality, and sexual orientation in males. Presented at the International Academy of Sex Researchers, August 2015, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

        Here’s a photo of Scott presenting his poster.


  1. •  Scott Semenyna received a GSA Travel award to travel to the International Academy of Sex Researchers in Toronto, Ontario.


  1. • A new article by Scott Semenyna and Paul Vasey entitled “Victimization due to bullying and physical aggression in Samoan men and women” is available online at the webpage for the journal, Personality and Individual Differences. 


  1. • A new article by Lydia Ottenheimer Carrier, Jean-Baptiste Leca, Sergio Pellis and Paul Vasey entitled “A structural comparison of female-male and female-female mounting in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata)” is available online at the webpage for the journal, Behavioural Processes. Congratulations on another Vasey lab publication, Lydia!


  1. • CTV News coverage of the Puzzle of Sexual Orientation conference can be found online (coverage starts at around the 11:30 time-point)


  1. • The talk Paul Vasey gave at Boston University’s Diversity, Plasticity & the Science of Sexuality symposium is now available online.


  1. • Sex on the Agenda at the U of L


  1. • At the Puzzle of Sexual Orientation closing banquet with the wonderful Katherine Frank


  1. • It was such a treat to get to see my old student, Lesley Roberts (nee Terry), at the Puzzle of Sexual Orientation conference.  Here she is presenting her poster with Gerulf Rieger looking on.


  1. • The Puzzle of Sexual Orientation Conference was held on the University of Lethbridge campus from July 20-23, 2015.  The conference was hosted by Paul L. Vasey, Kelly Suschinsky & Jean-Baptiste Leca.  Past and present Vasey lab members presented the following poster and podium presentations:

Court, L. & Vasey, P.L. (2015). Role specialization and the evolution of transgender male androphilia. 


Fernandes, H. Figueredo, A.J., Woodley, M. & Vasey, P.L. (2015). There’s something queer about primate sociality: Phenotypic and phylogenetic associations between sociality indicators and same-sex genital interactions across clades.

        Here’s a photo of Heitor presenting his poster with Thomas Johnson looking on.


Gunst, N., Leca, J-B. & Vasey, P.L. (2015). Male-bonded dyads in the mona     monkeys of Grenada, West Indies: Potential for male bisexual behaviour in primates?


Leca, J-B., Gunst, N. & Vasey, P.L. (2015). Female Bisexual Behavior of Japanese Macaques: A Kinsey Scale for Monkeys? 


Mallard, R.W., Petterson L.J, & Vasey, P.L. (2015). Striving to avoid inferiority: Is there a sexual orientation influence?


Playà Gonález, E., Vinicius, L., & Vasey, P.L. (2015). Are attitudes toward androphilic males related to need for alloparental care?

        Here’s a photo of Eduard and Paul Vasey in front of his poster.


Petterson, L.J, VanderLaan, D.P., Persson, T.J. & Vasey, P.L. (2015).     Childhood and adulthood indicators of depression and anxiety and their relationship with sex, sexual orientation, gender atypicality.

        Here’s a photo of Lanna presenting her poster with Michael Seto looking on.


Semenyna, S.W. & Vasey, P.L. (2015). Occupational preferences in Samoan men, women and fa’afafine.


Vasey, P.L., Petterson, L.J, Dixson, B.J., Little, A.C. (2015). Are dichotomous male monosexualities WEIRD? Insights from a Polynesia culture.


  1. • Lanna Petterson obtained a Profiling Award from the University of Lethbridge to attend the International Academy of Sex Research Conference in Toronto where she will give a podium and a poster presentation. Congratulations Lanna and well deserved! 


  1. • Francisco Gomez joined the Vasey lab.  He’s coming from the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez. Welcome aboard, Francisco!


  1. • A new article by Doug P. VanderLaan, Lanna J. Petterson, Ryan W. Mallard & Paul L. Vasey entitled “(Trans)gender role expectations and childcare in Samoa” was published in the Journal of Sex Research. 


  1. • The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada award Paul Vasey, Kelly Suschinsky & Jean-Baptiste Leca a $25,000 Connection Grant!


  1. • Paul Vasey was awarded a University of Lethbridge Board of Governors Research Chair (Tier I) for a 5-year term.


  1. • Paul Vasey recently completed filming in Samoa for a five-part documentary series entitled “The Next Human.”


  1. • The Bad Girls controversy is back in the news again and again...


  1. • Alice Dreger tweeted: Follow these scientifically intelligent, sex positive ppl who write on sex: @cbpolis @DebbyHerbenick @DrJenGunter @JamesCantorPhD @Vaseylab


  1. • More on the Bad Girls controversy.  Check out my essay, In the Manner of a Bad Girl, which appeared in the censored issue of Atrium.


  1. • Thanks to the heroic efforts of Alice Dreger the banned Bad Girls issue of Atrium has now been un-banned!  My essay/homage to, Trisha Tuiloma, my Samoan research assistant appears in the Bad Girls issue and I’m so please that it’s now available for everyone to read.


  1. • Paul Vasey & his former student Deanna Forrester published an entry in the International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality entitled “Homosexuality in Non-Human Primates and Humans.”  Congratulations Deanna on another Vasey lab publication!


  1. •Lucas Court received an Erasmus +  grant from the European Commission to conduct his research on the evolution of role specialization in transgender male androphiles. Congratulations Lucas!


  1. • A book chapter by Paul L. Vasey & Doug VanderLaan entitled “Evolutionary developmental perspectives on male androphilia” was published in the edited volume, Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Psychology.


  1. • The Vasey lab is sending an LGBT youth to camp this summer with their donation to Camp fYrefly, Canada’s only leadership retreat for sexual and gender minority youth.


  1. •A new article entitled “Influence of sexual competition and social context on homosexual behavior in adolescent female Japanese macaques” by Noëlle Gunst, Jean-Baptiste Leca & Paul Vasey was published in the American Journal of Primatology.


  1. • Paul Vasey gave a talk in the Department of Biology at Boston University entitled Female Homosexual Behaviour in Japanese Macaques: Current Research Developments.


  1. • Paul Vasey spend two days on Cape Cod in a spectacular midcentury modernist house enjoying fantastic conversations with an international group of scholars who formed the newly minted Working Group on Sexual Plasticity.


  1. • Paul Vasey gave a lecture entitled The Evolution of Male Same-Sex Sexuality: Lessons from the Samoan fa’afafine and Japanese macaques as part of Boston University’s Center for Philosophy and History of Science colloquium on Diversity, Plasticity, and the Science of Sexuality.


  1. • Lydia Ottenheimer Carrier successfully defended her MSc thesis entitled “Female Mounting in Japanese Macaques: Proximate and Ultimate Perspectives on Non-Conceptive Sex.”  Congratulations Lydia and best of luck with your future work!


  1. • M2O’H in Vancouver...


  1. • Paul Vasey published a box essay entitled “Sex, gender and sexuality in Samoa” in the textbook Understanding Human Sexuality, 6th Canadian Edition by Janet Shibley Hyde, John D. DeLamater & E. Sandra Byers.


  1. • Lanna Petterson and Scott Semenyna gave two amazing podium presentations about our Samoan research at the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society Conference:

Petterson, L.J., Dixson, B.J., Little, A.C., & Vasey, P.L. (2015). Viewing time measures of Samoan male sexual orientation.  Presented at the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society Meetings, April 10, 2015, Boston, USA.


Semenyna, S.W., Petterson, L.J., VanderLaan, D.P., &  Vasey, P.L. (2015). The sexually antagonistic gene hypothesis for male androphilia: A replication study in Samoa.  Presented at the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society Meetings, April 10, 2015, Boston, USA.


  1. • A new article entitled “Elevated Childhood Separation Anxiety: An Early Developmental Expression of Heightened Concern for Kin in Homosexual Men?” by Doug VanderLaan, Lanna Petterson & Paul Vasey appeared in the Dr. Sybil Eysenck Young Researchers Award Special Issue of Personality and Individual Differences. 


  1. • Vasey lab member, Scott Semenyna, published a new article entitled “Dominance styles mediate sex differences in Dark Triad traits,” in the journal, Personality and Individual Differences.  This article is based on work Scott did as a undergraduate student with Dr. Lynn Honey at Grant Macewan University.


  1. • The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada award Paul Vasey a 5-year Individual Discovery Grant and bumped it up to $200,000!


  1. •  What’s driving men to keep this trend growing? Another popular article discussing my cross-cultural research with Barnaby Dixson on men’s beards, which was published in Behavioral Ecology.


  1. • Being gay is not a choice.  Another popular article discusses my research with Doug VanderLaan on kin selection and male androphilia in Samoa.


  1. • Thanks to Sari van Anders who has some nice things to say on Twitter about the Vasey lab’s evolutionary research on sexual minorities.


  1. • Thanks to the U of L’s Vanessa Hagedorn for the very nice shout out she gave me on her radio program SexyTalk. Vanessa said that my Comparative Sexuality class is probably her favourite University course other than the one she is currently taking with me What is Sexual Orientation? (which is apparently making her pull out her hair because it’s “not an easy question to answer”).


  1. • Paul Vasey visited his collaborator Marc Epprecht and his colleague Meredith Chivers at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.  He also got to visit with Chiver’s lab members Kelly Suschinsky and Sam Dawson and hear about their fantastic new research.


  1. • Paul Vasey visited his old colleague and collaborator, Martin Lalumière, in the Department of Psychology at the University of Ottawa where he gave a talk entitled The Evolution of Same-Sex Attraction: Evidence from Samoa.


  1. • Paul Vasey was in Ottawa for several days where he served on the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada adjudication committee for Psychology Insight Grants.


  1. • The banned “Bad Girls” issue of Atrium edited by Alice Dreger and in which my essay/homage In the Manner of Bad Girl appeared is now available at Alice’s website.  You can read more about the controversy surrounding this issue here.  While you’re at it, go read Alice’s new book Galileo’s Middle Finger in which I make a cameo appearance. 


  1. • Paul Vasey’s research was discussed in the popular article, Homosexual Behavior in Animals: Does This Mean They Are Truly Homosexual?


  1. • Lanna Petterson, Ryan Mallard and Paul Vasey recently helped write a Sexual Orientation Minority Myths and Facts Sheet for the City of Lethbridge.  The fact sheet was commissioned by the Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination. Kudos to the City of Lethbridge for helping to dispel myths about its Sexual Orientation Minority citizen! 


  1. • A new article entitled “Viewing Time Measures of Sexual Orientation in Samoan Cisgender Men Who Engage in Sexual Interactions with Fa’afafine,” by Lanna J. Petterson, Barnaby J. Dixson, Anthony C. Little & Paul L. Vasey was published in the open access journal, PLoS ONE.


  1. • Paul Vasey gave a public lecture at the Helen Schuler Nature Centre in Lethbridge entitled “Love on the Wild Side.”


  1. • Paul Vasey appeared on the University of Cambridge podcast, The Naked Scientist.


  1. • Paul Vasey was interviewed for the BBC Earth article Are there any homosexual animals?


  1. • Former Vasey lab member Chelsea Wrightson was accepted in the Counseling Psychology program and the University of Lethbridge.  Congratulations Chelsea!


  1. • Paul Vasey published a box essay entitled “What can the the Samoan fa’afafine teach us about Western concepts of gender identity” in the textbook Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity, Canadian 5th Edition by Spencer A. Rathus, Jeffrey S. Nevid, Lois Fichner-Rathus & Alex McKay.


  1. • Paul Vasey was interviewed by Dr. Marie McNeely for the podcast People Behind the Science.


  1. • A dear friend of the Vasey lab, Peti Laban, pass away on January 23, 2015.  Some of my best memories of Samoa are of my regular visits with Peti over the past 12 years. I always admired her business acumen. She was an unfailing supporter of my research and an all-around good person. I’ll miss her greatly. 


  1. • Paul Vasey is thrilled to announce that former lab member, Dr. Doug VanderLaan, has accepted a tenure-track position in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto!  Congratulations Doug on an extremely well deserved faculty appointment!


  1. • Cultural influences may play a role in maintaining non-conceptive sexual behaviour in Japanese macaques


  1. • A new article entitled “Influence of Sexual Competition and Social Context on Homosexual Behavior in Adolescent Female Japanese Macaques” by Noëlle Gunst, Jean-Baptiste Leca & Paul L. Vasey is available online at the webpage for the American Journal of Primatology.