RSSH Seminar Series: Sexuality Education - Creativity and activism beyond the classroom

How can we change the risk-based narrative around sex and sexuality education and help people engage with sex-positive learning environments and materials?

Sexuality education is hot on the international public health agenda, but often approaches are stuck in the past and focused on the reduction of adolescent pregnancy and HIV prevention. Research continues to show us that risk-based approaches to sexuality education do not work, and if anything, turn learners away.

Sexuality education is so much more than talking about the practicalities of safer sex, it’s about social-emotional education, learning about our bodies, identity, relationships, love, pleasure, and healthy exploration.

Come and hear from our guest speakers as they discuss their experiences riding the sex-positive wave in their activism work. You'll be hearing about the design of their creative sexuality education and training materials and their engagement with policymakers, researchers, and learners. 

Join the live event on 17 May to hear the conversation first and put your questions to the panel, or listen to the podcast via The RSSH Podcast series on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Find out more and sign up for 'Sexuality Education: Creativity and activism beyond the classroom' on Eventbrite.

Speakers: Anne Philpott, Laura Ramos Tomás and Justin Hancock

Anne Philpott is a public health professional, pleasure propagandist and 'guerrilla girl' of HIV prevention. She founded The Pleasure Project in 2004, in frustration of endless AIDS meetings where no one talked about people’s motivations for having sex, or even pretended sexually transmitted infections were airborne. The Pleasure Project forges connections between the worlds of public health, academia, and the media and is globally recognised as the agency that has championed putting pleasure into safer sex education. They worked with the World Association of Sexual Health to launch a declaration of sexual pleasure in 2021. They published a review with the World Health Organisation in 2022 that showed that pleasure-inclusive sexual health improves sexual health outcomes and increases condom use. And 25 agencies have now endorsed their Pleasure Principles.

Laura Ramos Tomás (ella/ela/she) is a European sexuality educator based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Laura has worked across Latin America at the intersection of poverty, lack of access to education, and gender- and social inequalities for 5 years, working with organisations that support survivors of trafficking, sex workers, and youth and young mothers living in social vulnerability. In 2020, Laura launched TabuTabu, an organisation on a mission to normalise healthy dialogue about sex and sexuality for people of all walks of life. TabuTabu’s Impact initiatives co-create contextually-relevant sexuality education programs with communities in Brazil and Honduras that centre sex- and pleasure-positivity. Laura is also a Pleasure Fellow at The Pleasure Project.

Justin Hancock is a sex and relationships educator, working with a cross-section of society, including young people, parents, teachers and universities. He created Bish Training to deliver sex education more creatively and usefully. Also a podcast producer, author and zine maker, Justin has developed accessible and creative materials for all. For inspiration, see justinhancock.co.uk.

Host/Facilitator: Elizabeth Ascroft

Elizabeth Ascroft is a PhD Researcher in sexuality education at the Open University. She is guided by participatory action research and loves delving into the never-ending bag of creative, arts-based methods in her work.