Staff profile

Professor Dennis Altman

Professorial Fellow

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Social Sciences

SS 328, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA (Tasmania), MA (Cornell).

Membership of professional associations

Elected to Governing Council. International AIDS Society 2004. Co-chair Sixth International AIDS Congress in Asia and the Pacific (2001).

Area of study

Australian Studies
International Development
International Relations
Politics

Brief profile

Dennis Altman is a writer and academic who first came to attention with the publication of his book Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation in 1972. This book, which has often been compared to Greer’s Female Eunuch and Singer’s Animal Liberation was the first serious analysis to emerge from the gay liberation movement, and was published in seven countries, with a readership which continues today. [In 2010 it was published in Japan]. Since then Altman has written eleven books, exploring sexuality, politics and their inter-relationship in Australia, the United States and now globally. These include The Homosexualization of America; AIDS and the New Puritanism; Rehearsals for Change, a novel (The Comfort of Men) and memoirs (Defying Gravity). His book, Global Sex (Chicago U.P, 2001), has been translated into five languages, including Spanish, Turkish and Korean. Most recently he published Gore Vidal’s America (Polity) and Fifty First State? [Scribe].Altman is Professor of Politics and Director of the Institute for Human Security at LaTrobe University in Melbourne. He was President of the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific (2001-5), and since 2004 has been a member of the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society. In 2005 he was Visiting Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard, and currently a Board member of Oxfam Australia. In 2007 he was made a member of the Order of Australia. Dennis was also the Deputy Chair ANCAHRD HIV/AIDS Committee (2000-3); Management Committee for shared learning workshops, APLF (2003-). In 1991 he became a member of the founding executive of the AIDS Society for Asia and the Pacific (ASAP), and was elected President in 2001.  

Research interests

Gender, Culture, Sexuality

- Sexuality and sexual regulation

Human Rights and Justice Issues

- Human security

International Relations

- Politics and culture of the United States and Australia

Political Theory and Political Philosophy

- Politics of HIV/AIDS

Recent publications

Books

Book Chapters

  • Altman, D. (2008) 'State Fragility, Human Security and HIV', in M.L. Foller & H. Thorn (eds) The Politics of AIDS, Palgrave, pp.17-26.
  • Altman, D. (2006) 'The United States', in P. Beilharz & T. Hogan (eds) Sociology: Place, Time and Division Melbourne, Oxford University Press, pp.150-5.
  • Altman, D. (2005) “AIDS and the Globalisation of Sexuality”, in Follér, Maj-Lis & Thörn, Håkan (eds) No Name Fever: AIDS in the Age of Globalization, Lund/Göteborg: Studentlitteratur/Museum of World Culture/Göteborg University, pp.91-116.
  • Altman, D. (2004) “The Seventh Commandment”, in Die Zehngebote catalogue for exhibition Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden Hatje Cantz Verlag, pp.180-5.
  • Altman, D. (2003) 'AIDS and Security', in K. Lee (ed.) Health Impacts of Globalisation, Palgrave Macmillan, pp.33-46.
  • Altman, D. (2002) 'Globalization and the International Gay/Lesbian Movement', in Diane Richardson & Stephen Seidman Handbook of Lesbian and Gay Studies, London, Sage.
  • Altman, D. (2001) 'Representation, Public Policy and AIDS', in M. Sawer & G. Zappala (eds) Speaking for the People, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, pp.208-24.
  • Altman, D. (2000) 'Marginality on the Tropic', in R. Phillips, D. Watt & D. Shuttleton (eds) De-centering Sexualities, London, Routledge, pp.37-48.
  • Altman, D. (2000) 'The Emergence of Gay Identities in Southeast Asia', in Peter Drucker (ed.) Different Rainbows, London, Gay Men’s Press, pp.137-56. (Spanish edition forthcoming from Siglo XX! Mexico City, 2002.)
  • Altman, D. (2000) 'Writing Identities', in C. Palmer & I. Topliss Globalising Australia, Melbourne, Meridian, pp.63-70.
  • Altman, D. (2000) 'The Emergence of "Modern" Gay Identities and the Question of Human Rights', in A.M. Hilsdon et al. Human Rights and Gender Politics: Asia-Pacific Perspectives, London, Routledge, pp.211-28.

Journal Articles

  • Altman, D. (2009) 'Escaping the Tribe',Overland, Vol.196, pp.26-32.
  • Altman, D. (2009) 'HIV/AIDS: the global outlook', Inside Story. For World AIDS Day 2009, Dennis Altman surveys the key international issues in prevention and treatment.
  • Altman, D. (2008) 'AIDS and the Globalization of Sexuality', Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 14(2): 145-160. (Abstract)
  • Altman, D. (2008) 'Visions of Sexual Politics', Sexualities, 11(1/2): 24-27.
  • Altman, D. (2007) 'The Margins of Our Attention', The Monthly, Black Inc, Melbourne, Vol.Dec-Jan, No.19, pp.52-58.
  • Altman, D. (2007) 'AIDS: The Continuing Primacy of the Political: Seven Propositions’, Contemporary Politics.
  • Altman, D. (2006) 'Taboos and denial in government responses to HIV', International Affairs 82(2): 259-68. Republished in N. Poku, A. Whiteside & B. Sandkjaer (2007) AIDS and Governance, Ashgate. (pdf - 67 KB)
  • Altman, D. (2005) ‘Rights Matter: Structural Interventions for Vulnerable Communities”, Health and Human Rights 8:2, pp.1-11.
  • Altman, D. (2004) ‘Sexuality and Globalization’, Sexuality Research and Social Policy [http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/pdf/10.1525/srsp.2004.1.1.63] January. Republished in Agenda: Empowering women for gender equity, Durban 62: 2004.
  • Altman, D. (2004) ‘Queer Centres and Peripheries’, Cultural Studies Review 10: 1, March, 119-28.
  • Altman D. (2003) 'HIV And Security', International Relations 17: 4, 417-27.
  • Altman, D. (with Michael O’Keefe) (2003) 'Combating insecurity', HIV Australia 2: 3, 16-7.
  • Altman, D. (2002) 'Writing the Self', Anthropological Quarterly 75: 2, Spring, 317-21.
  • Altman, D. (2002) 'Rabbit Syndrome: Correspondence', Quarterly Essay 5: 78-82.
  • Altman, D. (2001) 'The Philippines and Australia: between Asia and the Pacific', Budhi (Manila) V:1: 201-8.
  • Altman, D. (with Mark Heywood) (2000) 'Confronting Aids: Human Rights, Law and Social Transformation', Health and Human Rights 5: 1, 149-79.
  • Altman, D. (2000) 'Talking Sex', Postcolonial Studies 3: 2, July, 171-80.
  • Altman, D. (1999) 'Globalization, Political Economy and HIV/AIDS', Theory and Society 28, 559-84. Republished in J. Weeks, J. Holland & M. Waites (2003) Sexualities & Society, Oxford Polity, 186-94; Y. Shunya & T. Morris-Suzuki (2002) The Cultural Politics of Globalization, Tokyo Heibonsha (forthcoming).
  • Altman, D. (1999) 'AIDS and Questions of Global Governance', Pacifica Review 11: 2 June, 195-11.

Reports

  • Altman, D. (2008) 'The Political Dimensions of Responses to HIV/AIDS in Southeast Asia', ASCI Research Report No.5, April. (pdf - 1 MB)

Invited Overseas Lectures and Conferences

  • (2004) 'Rights Matter', Jonathan Mann Memorial Plenary International AIDS Conference, Bangkok, July.
  • (2003) 'Political Responses to the AIDS Epidemic', National Conference Japanese Society for AIDS Research, Kobe, November.
  • (2003) 'Global Politics and HIV/AIDS', 2nd Asian Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health, Bangkok, October.
  • (2003) 'Queer Centres and Peripheries', Larry Kramer Lecture, Yale & Princeton Universities, September.
  • (2003) 'Neo-colonialism or Liberation: Who invented the "global gay"?' Queer Zagreb, April.
  • (2002) 'AIDS and Security', Asian Parliamentary Forum for Population and Development ESCAP, Bangkok, December.
  • (2002) 'Political Responses to the AIDS Epidemic', 12th Bayer Symposium on Urology, Tokyo, September.
  • (2002) 'Brave New World: New Cultural and Social Formations', XIV International AIDS Conference, Barcelona, July.
  • (2002) 'Globalisation of sexual identities in the shadow of AIDS', Gender, Sexuality and Law Conference, Keele University, June.
  • (2002) 'Queer LA in the Global Imaginary', UCLA, May.
  • (2002) 'Globalization and Sexual Identities', University Seminar on Sexuality, Gender, Health and Human Rights, Columbia University, April.
  • (2002) 'Tourism as Liberatory', Conference on Travel and Commodified Desire, Rice University, April.
  • (2001) Speaker on panel: 'Sex in the global circuit: Intersexions and (Inter)nationalisms', American Anthropological Association, Washington, December.
  • (2001) 'Sex in the New Global Political Economy', Cultural Studies Colloquium, George Mason University, Virginia, November.
  • (2000) Chair and Panellist: Thematic Session: Gay and Lesbian Movements: Oppression, Domination and Liberation, American Sociological Association, Washington, August.
  • (2000) 'Political and Economic Perspectives seminar on Sexuality and Social Change', organised by ABIA, UERJ and Ford Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, December.
  • (2000) 'Plenary debate on Social Theory', XIII International AIDS Conference, Durban.
  • (2000) 'Building and Sustaining Activism', 3rd International HIV Prevention Works Symposium, Durban, July.
  • (2000) 'AIDS and global governance Joint Research Conference', Ateneo University, Manila, February.
  • (1999) Speaker on Panos Panel on Men and HIV, Fifth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, Kuala Lumpur, October.
  • (1999) Invited speaker on UNAIDS and global civil society, First International Forum of Montreal, September.
  • (1999) 'Globalisation and gay identities', University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, June.