An Afternoon with Quill Kukla: Talk and Book Signing: Sex Beyond Yes

Join us for an afternoon talk with Quill R. Kukla on their new book Sex Beyond "Yes". Quill will give a talk and will also be interviewed by the moderator, Mari Mikkola. There will be room for questions and discussion. Quill will be signing their books afterwards.About the bookPhilosopher Quill R. Kukla questions traditional notions of consent in this honest, humanistic reimagining of what it means to have pleasurable, ethical, and respectful sex.Every discussion of sexual ethics revolves around consent, but is this notion enough to help us understand good sex? How does the dominance of consent help or prevent us from negotiating the complexities of intimacy and pleasure?Georgetown professor Quill R Kukla argues that the idea that consent is the gatekeeper between the realms of good and bad sex does not give us the tools we need to navigate pleasure and intimacy. They claim that traditional discussions of consent make no room for the reality that we can have good sex even though we may get drunk or high, or become forgetful with age, or be limited by social pressures and power relationships.Kukla explores the ambiguous realms in which sexual agency requires much more than the ability to just say “yes” or “no” to sex. They confront moments of discomfort: How does consent work for people with dementia, a condition that is also associated with increased libido? Or in sex work, where sexual contracts challenge our traditional conceptions of ethical sex? How can we express our agency when exploring new kinks, where our hesitations and ambivalence are part of the thrill? Or even in everyday sex—where partners inevitably differ in enthusiasm, power dynamics, and experience?Combining rigorous research and universal lessons that apply both in and out of the bedroom, Kukla approaches the concepts of sexual agency, sexual pleasure, and consent with unapologetic verve. Challenging readers to think beyond reductive concepts of consent, gender, and freedom, Sex Beyond “Yes” reframes the communication and social support we need to establish sexual relationships founded on genuine respect, open discourse, and unhindered joy.

About the speakersQuill R. Kukla lives in Washington, DC, and Berlin. They are Professor of Philosophy and Disability Studies at Georgetown University, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. They are also an amateur competitive boxer and powerlifter, the parent of a young adult, and the devoted caretaker of a corgi and two cats. This is their fourth book.From their site: "I am Professor of Philosophy and Disability Studies at Georgetown University. For much of 2025 and 2026 I will be a fellow at the SOCRATES Institute at Leibniz Universität Hannover. I also hold honorary positions at the University of Johannesburg, Queen’s University Belfast, and Technische Universität Berlin. I work on ethics (including bioethics, sexual ethics, health communication ethics, and science ethics), feminist and anti-oppression philosophy, social dimensions of science (especially medicine and geography), philosophy of language, social epistemology, philosophy of place and urban theory, and aesthetics. I’m also a competitive amateur boxer and powerlifter. My pronouns are they/them."Mari Mikkola is a Professor of Philosophy and Chair of Metaphysics at the University of Amsterdam. Her areas of expertise are in feminist philosophy, particularly feminist metaphysics, and pornography debates in philosophy. In addition, her current work deals with philosophical methodology and conceptions of hate speech. Mikkola has published extensively on these topics being the sole author of two books (The Wrong of Injustice: Dehumanization and Its Role in Feminist Philosophy and Pornography: A Philosophical Introduction, both with OUP) and is the author of several articles on feminist philosophy, social ontology, and pornography. Prior to coming to Amsterdam, she worked at the University of Oxford/Somerville College, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Lancaster University, and University of Stirling. From Aug 2022 onwards, she will be the Head of Philosophy Department at UvA. Mikkola is particularly open to supervising PhD theses in analytic feminist philosophy, social philosophy, and social ontology.

Event Venue

The American Book Center, 12 Spui, Amsterdam, Netherlands