How did fin-de-siècle Vienna receive, reinterpret, and integrate evolutionary theories into its previous and ongoing intellectual milieu? During my fellowship, I aim to investigate the reception and nature of evolutionary thought at the Vienna turn of the century by using sexual science as a case study. Viennese thinkers brought about the separation of reproduction and sexual functions and developed concepts such as bisexuality, sexual drive, and sex determination during a period in which sexuality became the subject of extensive research.

However, a clear account of which theories on sexuality pre-dated evolutionary reasoning and which heavily depended on it is currently lacking. An account of this should encompass not only how emergent biological thinking first influenced sexological inquiry but also the application of biological models once biology became an objective, independent branch of science, including from teleological interpretations of sexuality to comparative frameworks that explain endocrine processes or sex determination. The topic of sexuality has often been portrayed under an interpretive paradigm of fin-de-siècle that emphasizes the so-called "inward turn" towards the individual psyche, its aestheticism, or decadence. These paradigms, which have long informed research, can be reimagined by placing sexual research and evolutionary thought within the confines of a thriving modern science. My goal of analyzing the role of sexuality in interpreting evolutionary theory thus serves a double function. By exploring the intersection of these two lines of thought, I aim to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of evolutionary theories' societal, cultural, and scientific implications of turn-of-the-century Vienna. More generally, I want to explore further the unique character of Austrian rationality, characterized by its anti-deterministic and anti-metaphysical bent, and its potential as a new analytical frame.