Gilbert Herdt, PhD, a cultural anthropologist, is Professor of Sexuality Studies and Anthropology. Professor Herdt is also Director of the National Sexuality Resource Center, a Ford Foundation funded project. Dr. Herdt has written about sexual cultures, and sexual and gender identity development cross-culturally and in the United States. Dr. Herdt's studies of the Sambia people of Papua New Guinea, made famous in a series of books and papers beginning with Guardians of the Flutes (1981), is a key case study that analyzes how culture and society create sexual meanings and practices. In the U.S. Dr. Herdt has studied adolescents and their families, the emergence of HIV and gay culture, and the role that social policy plays in people's sexual health. A Fulbright, NIMH, and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Herdt has taught at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Washington. His publications include nearly 30 single and edited books, and more than 100 scientific papers.
It is not right that only wealthy people’s children who attend private schools get quality sexual literacy. This form of extended segregation creates a vacuum and fills it up with shame, fear and silence.
