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Paper short abstract

This paper examines the phenomenon of student sex work through an ethnographic and intersectional lens, focusing on the social and political factors shaping institutional stigma in Spanish and Italian universities.

Paper long abstract

In recent years, stigma against sex workers has become a central concern in feminist studies of social exclusion, sexualities, and gender. This paper understands stigma not merely as an individual or cultural disposition, but as a moral and institutional technology embedded in everyday bureaucratic practices, shaping forms of regulation, recognition, and exclusion.

Based on a multi-sited ethnography carried out at four of the largest universities in Southern Europe, this paper explores how institutional stigma is produced and enacted within university settings in Spain and Italy, focusing on the experiences of student sex workers in their interactions with educational institutions. It shows that universities are not neutral spaces, but can instead become arenas shaped by power relations in which certain subjectivities and identities are legitimized or silenced.

The paper thus seeks to open a critical debate and to foster shared educational responsibility in addressing stigma, as well as pedagogies that challenge moral and political boundaries. In doing so, it aims to promote feminist and intersectional reflections oriented toward sexual democracy and social justice within and beyond the university.