[Gala-l] Call for chapters: “The Language of Sex Work"

[Benedict J. L. ROWLETT]

Dear Colleagues,

Please see below a call for chapter contributions to a forthcoming edited
collection on the language of sex work.

Sex work has long been of interest to a variety of fields, among them
anthropology, sociology, public health, feminist theory, and to a lesser
extent, sociolinguistics. Much of the research on commercial sex points to
the fact that, as an intersubjective business transaction, it is primarily
negotiated in linguistic interaction. The language of sex work, however,
has received little systematic attention. This book aims to fill this gap.
For this project we use the term “sex work” broadly, to refer to the
multitude of contexts and practices (services, venues etc.) where bodily
and/or emotional intimacy is exchanged for material gain. We, Rodrigo Borba
and Benedict Rowlett (co-editors) are seeking chapter contributions to a
volume, tentatively titled ‘The Language of Sex Work’, to be published
within the next two years.

Our rationale for the book project comes from a desire to bring together
work that raises scholarly and critical awareness of the crucial role that
language plays in contexts of sexual transaction and what this attention to
language can tell us about various intersectional nexus points (gender,
sexuality, race, class, etc.) and agency.  More specifically, we are
interested in the “tricks” that sex work may play on current sociocultural
linguistic theories and methodologies when considering sex work as a
power-infused context where (lack of) agency is paramount (Borba,
forthcoming). As such, we see this edited collection (the first of its kind
as far as we are aware) as making a significant impact towards advancing
interdisciplinary discussions on this topic in feminism, anthropology,
sociology, and sociocultural linguistics.

Topics of interest we see the chapters potentially (re)addressing include
(but are not limited to):

   -

   How both sides of the dichotomy between oppression and empowerment may
   emerge in sex worker narratives.
   -

   How identity may be decoupled from desire in performances of sex work,
   urging us to rethink both identity and desire as complexly produced in
   interaction.
   -

   How discourses of criminalization and liberation intersect at local and
   translocal contexts to produce different understanding of sex work in
   legal, medical, political, and mediatic contexts.
   -

   How clients talk about sex work and narrate their relations with sex
   workers.
   -

   How feminist, queer, and transfeminist discourses differently frame sex
   work in different national contexts
   -

   How sex workers may strategically control the embodiment of language and
   of self.
   -

   Confronting dominant ideologies that position women’s language as
   powerless and men’s language as powerful. For example, how do sex workers
   repurpose gendered expectations to financial advantage?
   -

   Investigating the methodological challenges that research on the
   language of sex work poses e.g. to move away from a reliance on audio and
   visual recordings by exploring other ways of capturing interactions between
   sex worker and client that give us insight into the pragmatics and
   metapragmatics shaping their social actions.

It is important to note that we take an expansive view of language
(semiosis) in this project, and consider any contribution that takes a
discourse (broadly defined) or social semiotic approach to sex work/sexual
transaction suitable for inclusion.
Please send a tentative title and 200-word abstract by the end of March 2021
to Rodrigo rodrigoborba at letras.ufrj.br and Ben browlett at hkbu.edu.hk. Please
also include your name and contact information. We look forward to
receiving your abstracts.

Rodrigo and Ben

********************

Dr Benedict J.L. Rowlett

Assistant Professor

Department of English Language and Literature

Hong Kong Baptist University

Office: OEW1110

Tel: (852) 3411 5031

http://eng.hkbu.edu.hk/people/academic-staff/assistant-professor/rowlett-benedict/
<http://eng.hkbu.edu.hk/people/academic-staff/assistant-professor/rowlett-benedict/>



Advisory Board Member, International Gender and Language Association
http://igalaweb.wixsite.com/igala

ORCID Page: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0500-4126

Academia.edu Page: https://hkbu.academia.edu/BenedictRowlett

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