It is with profound sadness that the Kinsey Institute announces the passing of our friend and colleague, Dr. Judith Allen, at age 68.  

An internationally renowned feminist historian and leading authority on the history of sexology, Dr. Allen held a unique role as both a Senior Research Fellow and Historian at the Kinsey Institute. Dr. Allen was a Distinguished Professor and Walter Endowed Professor of History at Indiana University and Associate Editor of the Journal of American History. During her more than three decades at the Kinsey Institute and Indiana University, she made profound contributions as a champion for the scholarly study of gender and sexuality. Notably, she led the creation of the Department of Gender Studies and established the first doctoral program in gender studies in the United States. Her work spanned diverse realms such as mid-Victorian prostitution, historical representations of masculinity, 19th century abortion trials in Australia, and American sexual histories from the Salem witch craze to the age of Viagra.  

As we mourn the loss of a dear colleague, we will honor Dr. Allen’s memory by safeguarding the history of sexology and women’s sexual and reproductive health that she dedicated her life to preserving, including through a forthcoming book on the Kinsey Institute Library & Special Collections that she co-authored with Liana Zhou and Shawn Wilson.  

We remember her in her own words, “nowhere in the world has anything close to what we have here with the Kinsey Institute.”