Pornography has long been a topic of concern within feminist and cultural studies circles. Now, the first academic journal has launched dedicated to its study. Entitled “Porn Studies,” the open-access journal launched its first issue back in March, 2014.

Pornography was the subject of bitter debates in the 1980s between anti-pornography feminists and others. As Lisa Duggan details in her book “Sex Wars,” anti-porn feminists like Andrea Dworkin , who believed that porn was inextricable from sexual assault and patriarchy, would often ally themselves with Christian-right groups in their fight against pornographic businesses.

But “Porn Studies” seeks neither to celebrate nor combat pornography, and is not interested in “assumptions about porn as essentially oppressive or corrupting, liberatory, subversive, conservative, empowering, harmful or dangerous.”

According to the introductory article,

Recent years have seen a resurgence of public discussions (and scares) about a series of pornography-related topics, perhaps most notably the expansions of pornography across the internet, its putative links to rape and sexual violence, and erotic life-styling or the oft-cited ‘ sexualization ’ of culture. These have become over time topics of intense public scrutiny and debate – sometimes spilling into moral, legal or administrative action. At the same time, the same issues have become the focus of increasing scholarly concern. Pornography is now of interest for academics working across a range of disciplines

It will publish quarterly and seeks to have forthcoming issues on “racial pornographics, on gay male porn, on porn audiences and consumers, on porn and surveillance, on gonzo, on European pornography, on porn and performance art, and porn celebrity and stardom.”

Check out the journal here.