Sonja Dolinsek, Universität Erfurt; Mira Fey, Graduate Institute Geneva

Venue: Humboldt-Universität in Berlin
Time: 13.-14.08.2019
Proposals by: 15.04.2019

Sex work seems to be inextricably tied to the police. Across space and time, the lived realities and experiences of sex workers, the organization of sexual labor as well as political and social debates on sex work can hardly be studied without reference to the ways in which the police and police officers approached and engaged with the sex economy.

The workshop aims to be a platform of knowledge-exchange for researchers, particularly early career scholars. In addition to the presenters, the organizers invite academics, students, activists, and practitioners to be part of the active audience to build interdisciplinary connections. This workshop aims at bringing together researchers from various fields who work on topics where sex work and the police intersect. Most recently, studies have focused on the policing of sex work and its negative impact on sex workers, especially where sex work is criminalized and therefore policed through control and repression. Human rights approaches stress how law-and-order approaches to the sex economy harm sex workers as well as victims of human trafficking.

Less attention has been directed towards the ways in which the police and individual (former) police officers actively engage in public and political debates on sex work in order to strengthen the resources and thus the grip of the police on sex workers. Similarly, a number of anti-sex work and some anti-trafficking initiatives continue to demand more rather than less police action in relation to sexual labor. Read more and source … (Web)