Faculty from different disciplines and academic colleges will present research related to the topic of sexuality for the annual panel that is part of Women’s History and Awareness Month.

Dagni Bredesen, an English and women’s studies professor, is the organizer of the panel.

“Why do a panel on sexuality?  Because it is sexy, interesting, provoking and, I trust, fun,” she said.

The panel is called “Sex in the City…in the Country…in the Mind” and will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Room 4440 of Booth Library.

The Office of Faculty Development and the women’s studies minor organized the panel, which is also co-sponsored by the non-profit literary reading series “Stories and Queer.”

Panel presentations will include “Eros and the Polis,” “Masturbation and U,” “Size Matters,” “No Sex Zone,” “The Sex Life of Orchids,” “Chasing After Choice: Rural Women’s Abortion Experiences Under the New Abortion Laws” and “Queer Representation on Film and Rural Communities.”

Each presentation will be about 10 minutes.

Donald Holly, an anthropology professor, said his panel topic called “Size Matters” would cover social issues with penis size.

“I teach a course on human evolution, and when I was asked to do this, I was thinking about a topic I was just talking about in class which had to do with penis size,” Holly said.

It was because of that classroom conversation he decided it would be a good topic for the panel.

“The thing I’m talking about is whether the size of the bulge in a man’s pants matters to women now or ever,” Holly said.

He said he would also incorporate the topic of the size of a man’s wallet.

“There is evolutionary physiologist and social biologist talk about women looking for men who are going to supply provisions and take care of the offspring, so there is a sort of an evolutionary kind of hook in there,” he said.

Holly said he would use clips from the TV show “Sex in the City” as part of his lecture.

Bredesen said the title of the panel is a play on the theme and the TV series.

“Some of our presentations are concerned with rural areas as well urban, and all the panelists are offering something intellectual on the topic, hence the ‘in the mind’ part,” she said.

The importance of this panel is to bring faculty and students together to talk about sexuality, which is being tackled from different personal and academic perspectives, Bredesen said.

“It is a way of reaching beyond our departments or colleges and is one way to build a stronger sense of community across campus,” she said.

The formant will be for four panelists to talk followed by a question-and-answer period along with a light refreshment break.  Then, the rest of the panelists will talk followed by a final question-and-answer session.

Stephanie White can be reached at 581-2812 or at sewhite2@eiu.edu.