Lisa Z. Sigel has been working on the history of sexuality, pornography, and censorship for more than twenty-five years. Dr. Sigel has published four books including Governing Pleasures (2002), International Exposure (2005), and Making Modern Love (2012). Her most recent book, A People's Porn (2020) provides the first large-scale history of American handmade and homemade pornography, offering the back-story for the recent explosion of amateur pornography on the web. In doing so, it offers a much-needed counterweight to ahistorical and ideologically-driven arguments that dominate most discussions about pornography. A People's Porn challenges our idea of pornography and tells a new story about American sexual history.
Dr. Sigel has worked on making the serious study of pornography available to a wider audience by making her books available on audible, by writing about folk erotica for The Magazine Antiques, and by advising the Museum of Sex (NYC) for the popular exhibit, “Hardcore History." She serves on the editorial boards of Porn Studies, Journal of Social History, and Book History.
TEACHING
Dr. Sigel teaches classes on historical methods, Victorian history, the Great War, and Crime and Punishment.