Mary Laing, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Northumbria University. Her research focuses on the criminalisation of sex and sexualities, with a specific focus on the sex industry. Most recently she has been working on a project exploring the licencing of adult work in Canada, as well as undertaking participatory research with sex workers in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. She has approximately 8 years ‘on the ground’ experience as a volunteer outreach worker in both the UK and Canada, and has experience delivering harm minimisation services to both male and female indoor and outdoor sex workers. Mary is the joint academic board representative for the UK Network of Sex Work Projects and has publications in journals including Sexualities, Geoforum and the Journal of Law and Society. Katy Pilcher, PhD, is a Lecturer in Sociology at Aston University. Her research interests centre around gender, sexualities, sex work, ageing, embodiment, work and employment relations, and visual research methods. Katy has completed research projects relating to erotic dance, sex work, and ageing and everyday life. She has published articles in Sexualities, Sociological Research Online, Leisure Studies, and Journal of International Women’s Studies. Katy is an executive committee member of the Feminist and Women’s Studies Association UK and Ireland. Nicola Smith, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Birmingham. Her research is broadly concerned with issues surrounding neo-liberal globalisation and social justice, particularly with respect to the (re)production of uneven gendered and sexualised power relations. Key publications include Global Social Justice (2010, Routledge, co-edited), Body/State (Ashgate, 2013, co-edited) and articles on commercial sex and queer theory in Sexualities, Review of International Political Economy and British Journal of Politics and International Relations.
`Queer Sex Work provides a fabulous antidote to the dominant, heteronormative orientation of most research and policymaking regarding commercial sex. Multidisciplinary and comprehensive in the range of issues covered, the book offers many fresh insights on the role of gender, sexuality, activism, and individuals' experiences when engaging in sex work. It should be required reading for policymakers who legislate in this area.' - Ronald Weitzer, Professor of Sociology, George Washington University, USA `Deploying queer as both an empirical descriptor and as an incisive analytic, this volume makes a necessary intervention into current debates around sex, work, and the vast domain of experience in-between.' - Elizabeth Bernstein, Associate Professor of Women's Studies and Sociology, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA `Essential reading and an excellent text that brings a much-needed focus on queer sex work, as well as addressing relevant theories, practices and methodologies in order to queer sex work .' - Maggie O'Neill, Professor of Criminology, School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, UK 'Not only is Queer Sex Work a volume that illuminates the often dark realm of Sex Studies, it also proves a scientifically fundamental contribution to the field of Queer Studies, and definitely helps the discipline take a step forward, by eliminating - or at least diminishing - the underestimation and prejudice that more often than not characterise the dimension of sex, a fundamental and constructing part of the human, which cannot be ignored by any study that attempts at exploring our culture.'- Raffaele Cutolo, University of Verona, Verona, Italy, Polemos