The University of North Texas Libraries invite applications for the 2020 UNT Special Collections Research Fellowship. Research in special collections is relevant to studies in a variety of disciplines including history, journalism, political science, geography, fine art, art history and American studies. We encourage applicants to think creatively about new uses for special collections. Preference will be given to applicants who demonstrate the greatest potential for publication and the best use of special collections at UNT Libraries.

The UNT Special Collections 2019 Research Fellowship Awardee

John A. Carranza

Project Title

Explaining Sex: Sex Education and Disability in the U.S. from the 1960s to the 1990s

Project Description

This project centers on how intimate relationships and human reproduction were formulated and challenged by social movements from the 1960s to the 1990s in the United States. The disability rights movement, women’s liberation, and gay liberation questioned popular conceptions of “normality” and sexuality, which informed how healthcare professionals responded to sex education for people with disabilities. The implication of such instruction simultaneously reinforced and complicated heterosexual marriage and the family as a social construct.

Biography

John A. Carranza is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin, where he specializes in the history of medicine and disability. A San Antonio native, he received his BA from University of the Incarnate Word and his MA from the University of Texas at San Antonio. For over a decade, he worked with children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities before leaving to pursue his PhD in Austin. During the 2019-2020 academic year, he will carry out dissertation research and continue as regular contributor to Synapsis: A Health Humanities Journal.