Carole Vance

Carole S. Vance, PhD, MPH, is an internationally-recognized anthropologist who has published widely on sexuality, human rights, science, gender, and health. She coordinated the landmark Barnard Conference on Sexuality and edited Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. A well-known public advocate regarding sexuality and rights, she has been a faculty member at Columbia University (Mailman School of Public Health and Department of Anthropology) for many decades. Vance founded, and for ten years directed, Columbia’s innovative Program for the Study of Sexuality, Gender, Health, and Human Rights, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, which aimed to advance research, as well as facilitate exchange between researchers and advocates on sexual health and rights issues. Professor Vance has taught and mentored researchers and activists in many international settings, including India, Istanbul, the Netherlands, China, and Vietnam. Dr. Vance’s recent work focuses on issues of consent and state regulation, the initiatives to stop sexual violence on US campuses, and trafficking into forced prostitution. Vance has received the David R. Kessler Award for lifetime contributions to the study of sexuality, and the Simon and Gagnon Award for career contributions to sexuality studies. Vance holds degrees in anthropology and public health (epidemiology).