Paper short abstract:

This presentation is based on the initial findings of a doctoral research project that seeks to investigate how mobility - including migration and other forms of movement - influence gendered sexualities in sex work, within southern Africa.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation is based on the initial findings of a doctoral research project that seeks to investigate how mobility - including migration and other forms of movement - influence gendered sexualities in sex work, within southern Africa. Literature suggests that when sex work intersects with any form of mobility, a conducive environment (space) for gender and sexual exploration manifests. I am curious as to what extent this nexus informs the sexual citizenship of people who move to sell sex (migrant sex workers), or sell sex on the move (mobile/transient sex workers). The purpose of this study is to unearth new knowledge, understandings and socio-political meanings that can be deduced from the intersections of sex work, mobility and gendered sexualities - specifically as they pertain to notions of citizenship. The study endeavours to unpack what this might mean for those whose gendered sexualities are performed fluidly across the spectrum - those who tend to be unrecognisable to the nation-state, but in cases where they are 'seen', are often (mis)identified as 'sexual deviants', or (at best) 'victims'. This analysis will be in the form of queering sex work and mobility. In so doing, I aim to explore how (sexual) economies - coupled with movement - inform the governance of (sexual) citizenships, and most importantly, to what socio-political ends.