Dr Melissa Kang
Medical Doctor & Academic, University of SydneyPresenting at the 2024 RSIS Conference
Opening Keynote Presentation: Putting Sex into Sex Education: what, why, how?’
Talking about ‘sex education’ is a minefield. This presentation will highlight the thirst for knowledge about changing bodies, sensations and feelings that has been communicated by adolescents through the Dolly Doctor column throughout the 1990s, 2000s and beyond. Melissa will give an overview of adolescent sexual development in the context of the human lifespan and contemporary understandings of human sexuality and why providing holistic information about sexuality and sex is important for giving young people skills for respectful, consensual and healthy relationships as they grow up.
Associate Professor Melissa Kang
Melissa Kang is a medical doctor and academic. She provides medical care to adolescents and young adults in a youth health clinic and is an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney. Her research includes young people’s access to health care, and adolescent sexuality and sexual health. Dr Kang is currently Vice President Oceania of the International Association for Adolescent Health, she has sat on several state and national government committees relevant to young people’s sexual health, and was President of the Australian Association for Adolescent Health from 2015 – 2020. She was the medical writer behind the ‘Dolly Doctor’ column in Dolly magazine for 23 years before the magazine closed. She has co-authored four books for adolescents, including Welcome to Consent and Welcome to Sex.