Expertise and the Public History of Sexuality ‘Second Opinion’ Submission for the Proposed Special Issue, ‘Sexpertise: Sexual Knowledge and the Public in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, Edited by Hannah Charnock, Sarah L. Jones, Ben Mechen.

Abstract

Summary How does the history of sexuality function as a form of ‘expertise’ when engaging with those outside of academia? What other types of expertise are at play in doing the public history of sexuality? This essay focuses on engagement with young people via museums and historical artefact collections within a UK context to explore the value of expertise from a range of sectors and from non-professional ‘publics’ and communities. It suggests that the context of UK Higher Education presents particular challenges and opportunities for professional historians doing the public history of sexuality and the way in which they can productively negotiate diverse forms of expertise.