Sex Work On Campus examines the experiences of college students engaged in sex work and sparks dialogue about the ways educators might develop a deeper appreciation for—and praxis of—equity and justice on campus.
Analyzing a study conducted with seven college student sex workers, the book focuses on sex work histories, student motivations, and how power (or lack thereof) associated with social identity shape experiences of student sex work. It examines what these students learn because of sex work, and what college and university leaders can do to support them. These findings are combined in tandem with analysis of current research, popular culture, sex work rights movements, and exploration of legal contexts.
This fresh and important writing is suitable for students and scholars in sexuality studies, gender studies, sociology, and education.
Foreword by thotscholar; Preface; 1: Introduction; 2: History, Politics, Law, and Stigma; 3: College Students, Sex Work, and Higher Education ; 4: Letters to a Young Sex Worker; 5: Endarkened Consciousness, the Lessons of Sex Working; 6: If Sex Workers Were Free: Toward a Radical Erotic Politic in Higher Education; Afterword by Raquel Savage; Epilogue; Appendix: Data Analysis
Biography
Terah J. Stewart (he/him), PhD, is an assistant professor of higher education and student affairs at Iowa State University. His research and writing focus on people and populations that are hypermarginalized and/or who are considered to have stigmatized identities, including college students engaged in sex work, fat students on campus, and identity-based student activism. He also engages in conceptual and empirical study of antiblackness in non-black communities of color. His work often centers on critical disruptive onto-epistemological frameworks and theories which seek to destabilize dominant ways of knowing and being, including Black/endarkened feminist, womanist, and Afropessimist perspectives. His research and writing have appeared in Action Research, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, Journal Committed to Scholarship on Race and Ethnicity, and the Journal of College Student Development. Dr. Stewart is also a coauthor of Identity-Based Student Activism: Power and Oppression on College Campuses (2020, Routledge).
"Sex Work on Campus centers and uplifts the voices of actual sex workers at a time when many conversations about the future of sex work are happening without us entirely. It's a must-read for anyone trying to be informed and challenged on the topic. The artful and engaging blend of anecdote and academia makes Sex Work on Campus an urgent book for the current discourse as society reexamines labor, sex work, and the rights and futures of college students in America. Dr. Stewart has done groundbreaking work."
—Tianna, Sex Work on Campus Study Collaborator/College Student Sex Worker
"The invisibility of sex work(ers) on college campuses is no more! TJ Stewart has masterfully written a book that is tender, loving, and opens the door for nuanced dialogues and advocacy that helps educators and administrators develop a deeper understanding of college student sex workers and the possibilities for liberation that are layered, complex, and push our definitions of labor. This book is transformative and needed, especially at a time when laws are being enacted that increase the exposure of sex workers, who are our students, to violence. Sex Work On Campus is a must-read for faculty members and administrators truly ready to learn about labor, harm reduction, and reaching towards justice."—Dr. Bettina Love, Professor of Teacher Education, University of Georgia. Author of We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom
"As a former sex worker, I would consider this a masterpiece! Dr. Stewart does a wonderful job humanizing sex workers. Most of the time, sex workers are stigmatized, excluded, and ridiculed. Not this time, we finally have a student voice! This is a must-read for students, academic departments, and scholars who are looking to dispel any negative stereotypes about sex workers and those involved."
—Maliah, Sex Work on Campus Study Collaborator/College Student Sex Worker
"Sex Work on Campus is a brilliant, necessary, and—dare I say—intimate study of an invisible work force in higher education: the student sex worker. In centering student sex workers’ voices, Stewart highlights the institutional biases sex workers and sex work researchers face as well as the university administration that both ignores and exacerbates their most vulnerable students’ plights. This much-needed contribution to the growing academic field of sex work studies will undoubtedly become a key text for students, professors, administrators, and sex workers, as well as the increasingly visible combinations thereof."
—Mistress Olivia Snow, Research Fellow at New York University’s AI Now Institute, and author of I Told My Mentor I Was a Dominatrix: She rescinded her letters of recommendation
"I feel seen. And I wish this type of material was something utilized by the university that I attended (particularly while I was there). I've seen scholarly articles, of course, by those of U.S and U.K. sex industries, but I've never seen a book like this one that was so accessible, a book that can be used across a variety of classes, while also still holding us in such an honoring and respectful light. Dr. Stewart as simple as day tells the information like it is—There is no requirement to downplay or unnecessarily euphemize any material. Instead, he manages to be both straightforward and poetic at the same time throughout its entirety. This is the clarity we need. If any other sex workers read this, it is my hope that you can find relation in it, too."
—Stokely, Sex Work on Campus Study Collaborator/College Student Sex Worker
Sex Work on Campus is recipient of the 2023 Association for the Study of Higher Education Outstanding Book Award.
