32.49, FYI: Call for Chapter Contributions - 'The Language of Sex Work'

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-49. Tue Jan 05 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.49, FYI: Call for Chapter Contributions - 'The Language of Sex Work'

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Date: Tue, 05 Jan 2021 04:34:22
From: Benedict Rowlett [browlett at hkbu.edu.hk]
Subject: Call for Chapter Contributions - '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.   
 



Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)

Language Family(ies): English





 



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