This event is open to University House members, their guests and University of Melbourne Staff. For more information on Membership. please visit our website.

University House is so excited to be hosting a Book Launch for KINKY HISTORY: The Stories of Our Intimate Lives, Past and Present.

Discover the long, long history of the dildo. Hear James Joyce celebrate the beauty of his wife’s farts. And you’ll never guess Albert Einstein’s thoughts on marital relations.

Kinky History draws on Esmé Louise James’s phenomenally successful series on TikTok, which explores scandalous stories in the ancient world and the saucy secrets of famous figures. Teaming up with her statistician mother, Dr Susan James, the pair have surveyed the nation for all of your intimate secrets – and the results are in.

By placing the past in conversation with the present, we'll explore five ‘kinks’ that challenge our thinking about sex. How has the idea of sin shaped our sex lives? Why is masturbation so taboo? Where are our hidden queer histories? How do kinks and fetishes play with the idea of sex? And why does pornography have so much power over us? Kinky History aims to blow open our conversation about sexuality and gender. Strap yourself in (or on?) – let’s build a more liberated, sex-positive future.

We'll be hosting a conversation with Esmé and her mother, Dr Susan James, with opportunity for questions, and networking. Drinks and nibbles are included on arrival, and the bar will be open afterwards for those looking to continue the party!

About the Author: Esmé James

Esmé James is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne in the School of Culture and Communications, researching the development of the erotic genre from the eighteenth century onwards. On social media she has developed her wildly popular Kinky History video series, which explores the history of human sexuality across a range of platforms (including TikTok, Instagram and YouTube) and the series SexTistics, which uses statistics to create a snapshot – past and present – of gender, sexuality and identity in Australia. Esmé was a speaker at TEDxSydney in 2022, and her writing has been published in the Age, the ABC, The Conversation and the Herald Sun. In 2020, she was listed in the Top 30 Emerging Writers by SBS Australia.

To find out more, visit her website!