[Gala-l] CofP Language and Sex work panel IGALA 9

[Rodrigo Borba]

Apologies for cross-postings.

Dear all,

I am organizing a panel on language and sex work to be submitted to IGALA 9
in Hong Kong. Below you find a general rationale for the panel. If you are
interested in taking part (or know someone who may be), please send a
500-word abstract directly to me (rodrigoborba at letras.ufrj.br) no later
than November 10th.


*"TURNING TRICKS": POSSIBILITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR A SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF
SEX WORK*





Research on language and sexuality within sociocultural linguistics has
produced a voluminous literature which has enriched our understandings of
the sexual realms of our social lives. However, the field has been
 surprisingly timid with regards to a context where both language use and
sexuality play a central role, namely sex work.  Commercial sex has,
however, been a major area of investigation within social scientific
research: anthropologists, sociologists and feminists have all produced
accounts of different aspects of the sale of sexual services. To a great
extent, this literature considers sex work as a microcosm which constitutes
and is constituted by a multitude of macro-sociological phenomena such as
globalization (Kempadoo and Doezema, 1998; Brennan, 2004), neoliberalism
(Bernstein, 2007), identity and state regulation (Weitzer, 2000; Sanders,
2005) to name but a few. In this scenario, this panel aims to advance
discussions of the analytical possibilities and methodological challenges
the study of sex work poses to sociolinguists. To do so, it welcomes
research that deals with any aspect of the semiotics of sex work.
Investigations may focus on any commercial sex venue (saunas, street-based
and indoor prostitution, phone sex, web sites etc.) and focus on the
multitude of actors in the business (i.e. female, male and transgendered
workers as well as clients). The panel aims to discuss how the
sociolinguistic study of commercial sex may “turn tricks”, as it were, to
our understandings of sexuality, identity categories, desire, linguistic
power, agency, the commodification of sex and intimacy as well as the
commodification of gendered language use.




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