Jeffrey Weeks

Jeffrey Weeks OBE (born 1945, in Rhondda, Wales) is a gay activist, historian and sociologist, specializing in work on sexuality. At time of writing, he is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at London South Bank University, regarded as "one of the leading British sociologists and historians within the field of sexuality", and "the most significant British intellectual working on sexuality to emerge from the radical sexual movements of the 1970s". He is among the early academics in Britain that emerged from the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), which he joined in 1970, and a founding member of the journal Gay Left which famously examined Pedophilia and platformed dissident voices such as PIE Chairman Tom O'Carroll. Weeks has written on intergenerational sexuality in various publications, including his book Sexuality and its Discontents (1985).

He has been on the editorial board of several journals, including the Journal of Homosexuality.

He was the Executive Dean of Arts and Human Sciences at London South Bank University (2003–2008), and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to social science.

Relevant Publications

• Jeffrey Weeks, Preface to the English translation of Guy Hocquenghem, Homosexual Desire (1972, English translation 1978), speculated to be the first work of Queer Theory.

• The Gay Left Collective. Happy Families? Paedophilia Examined. Gay Left: A Gay Socialist Journal, Issue 7 (Winter 1978/79), pp. 2-6. [O'Carroll's article titled Chemical Castration was published in this issue. Responses to the Collective's discussion on pedophilia were published in issue 8, with separate contributions by Jamie Gough and Tom O'Carroll. Issue 7 platformed Jean Le Bitoux, a French gay activist who went on to found the MAP friendly gay magazine Gai pied / Gai pied hebdo, while issue 8 reviewed Parker Rossman's Sexual Experience Between Men and Boys (1976, available in our chronological archive)].

• Weeks, (1981). Sexuality and Social Policy. Critical Social Policy, #2, 1, pages 111-118. [Reviews John Hart, Social Work and Sexual Conduct (1979), O'Carroll, Paedophilia: The Radical Case (1980, available in our chronological archive), and Brian Taylor (ed.), Perspectives on Paedophilia (1981)].

• Weeks, 'Paedophilias?'; Gay News [London], Number 263; 29 April, 1983. [Reviews The Child-Lovers: A Study of Paedophiles in Society, by Glenn D. Wilson and David N. Cox (available in our chronological archive).