Iain Morland

Iain Morland (born 1978) is a British music technologist and author. He formerly lectured in cultural criticism at Cardiff University. His writings focus on issues of gender and sexuality, medical ethics, and science. In 2005, Times Higher Education described Morland as a leading academic in the field of sex research. He has edited an edition of the journal GLQ, and co-authored Fuckology, a critical analysis of the writings and practices of John Money. With Lih-Mei Liao, Morland co-founded in 2002 Critical Sexology, a continuing interdisciplinary seminar series on gender and sexuality. His audio work includes audio editing, sound design and programming.

Morland was born with an intersex condition and subjected to numerous surgeries in childhood. Much of his writing focuses on the impact of those interventions, in explorations of the ethics of medical intervention, but also the ethics of touch, "desire's reach" and the relationship between intersex experiences and queer theory. He has a doctorate and formerly lectured in cultural criticism and gender studies at Cardiff University in the UK.

As author

Selected published works as author include:

"‘The Glans Opens Like a Book’: Writing and Reading the Intersexed Body" (2004). Morland talks of surgeries on infants with intersex genitalia as being a "crisis of signification" and readability.

"II. Intimate Violations: Intersex and the Ethics of Bodily Integrity" (2008). Morland argues that intersex management through surgical interventions is an intimate violation caused by lack of sensitivity to the modification of intersex bodies.

"Between Critique and Reform: Ways of Reading the Intersex Controversy" in the book Critical Intersex, edited by Morgan Holmes, in 2009. This essay aimed to analyse activist and clinician narratives about the medical management of intersex, questioning "the ethical self-evidence of the transition from intersex medicine's critique to its reform". The book has been described as "the "go to source" for a contemporary, international representation of intersex studies," making "contributions that are precise, plainly written and very illuminating... the detail is fascinating and somewhat unnerving... beautifully clear and compassionate" (Contemporary Sociology), and "an important collection" (Suzanne Kessler, State University of New York).

"What Can Queer Theory Do for Intersex?" (2009) in Intersex and After, an issue of GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies in 2009. The essay contrasts queer "hedonic activism" with an experience of insensate intersex bodies to claim that "queerness is characterized by the sensory interrelation of pleasure and shame".

"Is intersexuality real?"' (2010). Morland suggests that "intersexuals need to change what counts as the truth about sex", using "language to describe what their bodies already prove - namely, that maleness and femaleness are not monumental, discrete categories". Faced with assertions that intersex bodies are disgusting, he concludes, "Surgery on intersexuals? Oh, how disgusting".

"Intersex Treatment and the Promise of Trauma" published in the book Gender and the Science of Difference: Cultural Politics of Contemporary Science and Medicine in 2011. This essay discusses the social construction of ambiguity and normality, arguing "that medicine has been, conversely and startlingly, traumatic by design".

"The Injured World: Intersex and the Phenomenology of Feeling" (2012) in differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies. Morland describes how one's "capacity to be affected by others" is disrupted by genital objectification and surgery: surgery on intersex genitals are an "injury to flesh" that injure "our capacity to find our feet with each other".

Fuckology (2014). Morland critically analyses the legacy of psychologist and sexologist John Money, including his development of gender identity as a concept, and the utilization of scientific theories about the plasticity of human nature to develop controversial but still widespread treatment protocols for the management of intersex conditions. Fuckology is co-authored with Lisa Downing and Nikki Sullivan, and published by University of Chicago Press in 2014. A chapter on "Gender, Genitals, and the Meaning of Being Human" includes material previously published as "Plastic Man: Intersex, Humanism and the Reimer Case" in 2007. New Scientist described the book as "ably capturing" Money's story while Susan Stryker described the book as a "careful, critical and nuanced" analysis of Money's career.

As editor

Queer Theory, edited with Annabelle Willox and published in 2004 in Palgrave Macmillan's Readers in Cultural Criticism series. This book presents fifteen articles on sexuality, gender studies and other aspects of queer studies. Notable contributors include Judith Butler, Patrick Califia, Cheryl Chase, Larry Kramer, Del LaGrace Volcano, and Stephen Whittle.

Intersex and After, an issue of GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies in 2009. Notable contributors included Alice Dreger, Vernon Rosario and Del LaGrace Volcano, as well as Sarah Creighton, Ellen K. Feder, Julie Greenberg and Nikki Sullivan. Morland also contributed an essay, "What Can Queer Theory Do for Intersex?".