We cordially invite you to a public lecture by Prof. Katrina Karkazis (Amherst College)

Title: From Testosterone to SRY: The Reorganization of Sex Eligibility in Sport

In 2025, World Athletics and World Boxing mandated SRY gene testing to determine eligibility for the female category, with the International Olympic Committee poised to follow. The mandate revives a form of genetic eligibility testing that governing bodies discontinued as a universal screening practice in the 1990s, after scientific critique established that chromosomal and genetic markers do not establish biological sex and cannot reliably predict phenotype. Despite the absence of new evidence addressing those critiques, sports governing bodies have returned to SRY and treat the presence of the gene as decisive for eligibility in the women’s category. In doing so, the rule collapses a complex developmental process into a single eligibility gate. The policy rests on a chain of linked premises: that SRY determines biological sex, that biological sex indicates whether an athlete underwent what the policy terms “male puberty,” and that male puberty produces physiological differences sufficient to justify categorical exclusion. This lecture examines the evidentiary basis for each premise and shows that the shift to SRY governance expands rather than resolves the inferential burden. The rule relies on an extended chain linking SRY to gonadal differentiation, testosterone production, androgen-sensitive tissue response, and ultimately athletic performance, but relocates the regulatory decision upstream, treating the first step in that sequence as sufficient to secure the boundary of the women’s category.

Information for public DLS Lecture
Thursday, 29th October 2026
16:00–18:00
Location: room B1/B2 (Levi-Montalcini) at CBBM, ground floor, Campus Lübeck 

Online-attendance via Webex

Information for DLS Seminar
Friday, 30th October 2026
09:00–14:00 (presence)
Location: IMGWF Lecture Hall (Hörsaal) Königstr. 42, 23552 Lübeck

DLS Seminar Programme

9:45 – 10:00 Coffee & Check-In

10:00 – 10:15 Welcome, introduction

10:15 – 11:30 Group work

11:30 – 11:55 Break

11:55 – 12:00 Group picture

12:00 – 12:45 Open discussion

12:45 – 13:00 iRTG information

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch