SUNY Distinguished Professor emeritus and former dean of the Faculty of Natural and Social Sciences at Buffalo State, Vern L. Bullough, R.N., Ph.D., was a pioneer in the study of the cultural and biological aspects of human sexuality. The author, coauthor, or editor of more than 50 books, Bullough has also contributed chapters to more than 100 publications and has written hundreds of refereed and popular articles. His recent books include Medicine, Science, and the Medieval University and Age of Consent, scheduled for publication this year, and Before Stonewall, published in 2003. Bullough has lectured in most of the 50 states and more than 25 countries, including Australia, China, Egypt, Ghana, Greece, Mexico, and Russia.
As an editorial consultant, Bullough has worked with the University of California, Indiana University, MIT, Temple University, and Yale University, and has read manuscripts for the American Historical Review, the American Journal of Nursing, the American Journal of Sociology, the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, the Journal of Sex Research, and Technology and Culture. He has served as a periodic consultant for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Research Council Canada, the Buffalo Psychiatric Center, and the California Department of Public Health Services. He currently serves as an editor for Hawthorn Press and Prometheus Books.
A founder of the Center for Sex Research at California State University, Northridge, and of gay caucuses in the American Historical Association and the American Sociological Association, Bullough has received numerous awards for his activism and scholarship, including the 1995 Alfred Kinsey Award, of which he was co-recipient with his late wife, Dr. Bonnie Bullough, former dean of the School of Nursing at the University at Buffalo. He has served as co-president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and is a past president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality and a founder of the American Association for the History of Nursing.
Bullough has worked tirelessly to further knowledge and understanding of human sexuality. He wrote the policy on gay and lesbian rights in the 1960s for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California, which was the first affiliate to hear court cases for gay and lesbian rights. He was a charter member of the original Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), which was founded in Los Angeles and became a model for other chapters nationally.
During his 13-year tenure at Buffalo State College, Bullough established nine endowed scholarship awards for students in the Faculty of Natural and Social Sciences in memory of his oldest son, David, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Jordan in 1967, while Bullough was a visiting professor in Egypt. He also donated more than 1,000 books to E. H. Butler Library for the medieval studies collection. In 1998, he established the Bonnie and Vern L. Bullough Academic Convocation Endowment to provide honoraria for speakers at the college's annual Academic Convocation.
Bullough earned a bachelor of arts in history and languages from the University of Utah and a master of arts in history from the University of Chicago in 1951. He earned his doctorate in the history of medicine and science from the University of Chicago in 1954. In 1981, Bullough earned a bachelor of science degree in nursing-- a long-standing interest of his-- from California State University, Long Beach.
Text From
Buffalo State Insider
APRIL 2004/VOL. 02, NO. 5