Dr. Serena Petrella

B.A. Hons. (Carleton), M.A. (Carleton), Ph.D. (Carleton)

Research Interests:

The Regulation of Sexuality, Gender and Social Justice, Marriage, Divorce and Family Law, Identity and Citizenship, Foucaludian Theory, Social Theory.

Bio:

Dr. Petrella was born in Italy and moved to Canada in her teens. Her current research projects are varied, and focus on the regulation of sexuality in the Law, gender and social justice, and social theory. In the area of the regulation of sexuality, she studies the evolution of gender norms in the pair and monogamy, the emergence of open relationships, and the criminalization of Mormon Polygamy. In the area of gender and social justice, she investigates how the Law facilitates “responsible” intimate sexuality, instilling sexual self-governance in individuals. In social theory, she concentrates on the way in which sexual desire is theorized to explain gender formation, the development of gender scripts, and sexual orientation.

Selected Publications:

Editor. Doing Gender, Doing Love: Interdisciplinary Voices (hard-copy volume arising from the second International Conference on Gender and Love, Mansfield College, Oxford, UK, in September 2012); Inter-disciplinary Press, forthcoming 2014.

“Cracking Down on ‘Big Love’: British Columbia’s Supreme Court Decision to Uphold the Criminalization of Mormon Polygamy while Decriminalizing Polyamory,” in Doing Gender, Doing Love: Interdisciplinary Voices (hard-copy volume arising from the second International Conference on Gender and Love, Mansfield College, Oxford, UK, in September 2012); Inter-disciplinary Press, forthcoming 2014.

“Free to Love Freely? The De-Criminalization of Polyamorous Love in Canada,” in Angie Knaggs and Silke Frischmuth’s, eds., Gender and Love: Constructions and Representations, e-book arising from the second International Conference on Gender and Love, in Mansfield College, Oxford, UK in September 2012; Inter-disciplinary Press, forthcoming 2014.

“Heterogeneities of Open Love: the Evolution of Intimate Relationships in the Context of Non-monogamy,” in Dikmen Yakali’s, ed., On Gender and Love: Interdisciplinary Explorations, Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2013.

“Beyond the Pair: the Changing Meaning of Intimate Relationships in the Context of Non-monogamy,” in Noemi de Haro García and Maria-Anna Tseliou’s, eds., Gender and Love: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Oxford: Inter-disciplinary Press, 2012.

“Ethical Sluts and Closet Polyamorists: Dissident Eroticism, Abject Subjects and the Normative Cycle in Self–Help Books on Free Love,” in Nick Rumens and Alejandro Cervantes-Carson, eds., Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging, Vol. 36 of the Critical Issues Project, Amsterdam: Radopi, 2007.

“Only With You – Maybe – If You Make Me Happy. A Genealogy of Serial Monogamy as Governance and Self-Governance,” in Margaret S. Breen and Fiona Peters’, eds., Genealogies of Identity. Interdisciplinary Readings on Sex and Sexuality, Vol. 26 of the Critical Issues Project, Amsterdam: Radopi, 2005.

Teaching Areas:

Sexuality, social theory, social justice and gender, the sociology of the family and marriage.

Courses Taught:

• 90:154 Introduction to Sociology
• 90:155 Social Processes and Social Institutions
• 90/36:266 Families and Society
• 90/36:267 The Sociology of Marriage
• 90:283 Classical Sociological Theory
• 90/56/36:353 Women in the Criminal Justice System
• 90/36:355 The Sociology of Sexuality
• 90:389 Contemporary Sociological Theory