We are excited to host Dr. Katy Pilcher and Dr. Nicola Smith, editors of Queer Sex Work, on a panel along with members of the English Prostitutes Collective to discuss this important and underrepresented topic. This panel will explore what it might mean to ‘be’, ‘do’ and ‘think’ queer(ly) in the study and practice of commercial sex. Through both academic and personal perspectives, panellists will challenge hetero-centric gender norms, looking into how gender, sex, power, crime, work, migration, space/place, health and intimacy are understood in the context of commercial sexual encounters.
A vegetarian and vegan lunch will be served from 13:00, panel begins at 13:30.
This venue has step-free access. If you have any further access requirements please contact mara.gold@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk
If you would like to have a look at the book, you can do so here:
https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#
Email: queerstudies@torch.ox.ac.uk
Password: password is Queer2019!
Speaker Bios:
Dr Katy Pilcher is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Aston University, UK. Katy has undertaken research projects relating to erotic dance; sex work; creative pedagogies; ageing and everyday life; and ‘orgasmic meditation’. Her research monograph Erotic Performance and Spectatorship: New Frontiers in Erotic Dance was published in 2017 (Routledge). This book was an ethnographic account of a lesbian erotic dance venue and a male strip show. In 2015, with Dr Mary Laing and Dr Nicola Smith, she co-edited Queer Sex Work (Routledge), which brings together insights from sex workers, practitioners, activists and academics.
Nicola Smith is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Birmingham. Her work focuses on the intersections between queer theory and feminist political economy, and her publications include Queer Sex Work (Routledge, 2015, co-edited with Mary Laing and Katy Pilcher), Body/State (Routledge, 2013, co-edited with Angus Cameron and Jen Dickinson), and Global Social Justice (Routledge, 2011, co-edited with Heather Widdows). Her latest project is monograph with Amelia Morris on The Body Politics of Austerity: Lean Times (Palgrave, forthcoming).
Cari Mitchell is a spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), a network of women working in different areas of the sex industry – both on the streets and indoors. She is a mother and grandmother, and a state registered nurse.
