2021 Summer Session

THE SEX-TRADE ECONOMY

Christelle Taraud

Ce cours est une introduction générale à l’histoire, à la sociologie et à l’anthropologie de l’économie du sexe du début du XIX e siècle à aujourd’hui. Il a pour objectif d’éclairer : 1) La question historiographique en proposant de questionner et d’analyser le système réglementariste français et ses nombreux avatars en Europe, aux Etats-Unis et dans le monde colonial mais aussi la riposte contre ce système constituée d’abord par les mouvements abolitionniste (né en Angleterre dans la seconde moitié du XIX e siècle) et prohibitionniste ; 2) Les rapports entre classe, « race » et genre dans le cadre du marché du sexe au travers notamment des questions de traite des êtres humains et de tourisme sexuel en Europe, Amérique, Afrique et Asie ; 3) La question socio-économique - et ses relais politiques - de l’économie du sexe en portant une attention particulière aux individus (prostitué-e-s versus travailleurs/euses du sexe), à leur parole, à leur demande de statut, et, par là-même à leurs mobilisations (rassemblements et manifestations, création de collectifs et de syndicats, production politique ou/et littéraire), mais aussi aux débats nombreux et houleux que ces demandes de reconnaissance et ces mobilisations sous-tendent dans des endroits aussi divers que la France, les Pays-Bas et l’Inde pour ne prendre que trois exemples précis dans le monde abordés dans le cours.

Based on an interdisciplinary, intersectional, subalternist and post-colonial approach, this course is a general introduction to the history, sociology and anthropology of the economy of the sex-trade in Africa, America, Asia and Europe from the early nineteenth century to today. It aims to clarify: 1) the historiographical situation by questioning and analyzing the French regulatory system and its many avatars in Europe, the United States and in the colonial world, but also questioning the backlash to this system that consisted firstly of the abolitionist (born in England in the second half of the nineteenth century) and then the prohibitionist movements; 2) The relationship between class, “race” and gender in the sex market via issues of human trafficking and sex tourism in Europe, America, Africa and Asia; 3) The socio-economic issue - and its political connections – in the economy of sex with particular attention to individuals (prostitutes versus sex workers), their voices, their legal status, and even their mobilization (rallies and demonstrations, community collectives and trade unions, political and/or literary publications), but also the many heated debates that these demands for recognition and these mobilizations have provoked in places as diverse as France, the Netherlands and India to take only three specific examples in the world covered in the course. Students will learn to work on the entire gamut of primary sources from the most traditional (e.g. essays, political statements, press reviews, administrative reports, demographic statistics, judicial archives, etc.) to less commonly used sources such as iconographic materials (e.g. paintings, photography, postcards, films) as well as private diaries, correspondence, etc. These primary sources will be studied in each session and will be contextualized in relation to secondary sources.

FIGHT THE POWER: POLICING & VIOLENCE IN FRANCE & THE US

Danielle Beaujon

In the summer of 2020, protests erupted across the US condemning the police killing of George Floyd. Protests gripped American streets and headlines for months, but the reckoning with police violence was not just an American phenomenon. In June, thousands of protestors flooded the streets of Paris, defying bans restricting mass gatherings during the pandemic and calling for “Justice for Adama.” In November, clashes between police and protestors again broke out, this time over new security laws intended to restrict the ability to circulate images containing officers’ faces. These protests, as well as the violence during the Gilets Jaunes movement, are prompting crucial questions about the role of the police in French society. Seeking to historicize these contemporary flashpoints, this course will take a comparative approach to the study of power, governance, and surveillance in France and the US. Through a mix of literary texts, primary documents, academic studies, and visual media, the course will ask what social, technological, and political dynamics shaped the interactions of police and people. How has the meaning of policing changed over time? And who are police institutions designed to serve? Contextualizing contemporary episodes of police violence, this course will challenge students to rethink structures of power and ask the question, “Where can we go from here?”

This course is designed to introduce you to comparative case studies of policing in France and the United States. The majority of the course will be spent doing close readings of primary and secondary sources and analyzing various media sources, including film, documentaries, and podcasts. These sources include the voices of police officers and activists, encouraging you to think through issues of policing and criminality from multiple vantage points. The syllabus seeks to foreground the perspective of scholars and writers from diverse geographic, gender, and ethnic backgrounds. Through textual and visual analysis, group discussion, and in-class activities, you will be prompted to question how police reflect the society in which they function. By the end of the course, you will have developed skills in analytical and critical thinking. By taking a comparative approach, you will also probe the similarities and differences in the relationships between police and state, police and society, and police and minority populations.

RESEARCH SEMINAR, SECTIONS 1 & 2

Liz Fink and Gabriella Lindsay

This course will guide and support you as you carry out an individually-designed project. These projects may take a wide variety of forms. You may wish to deepen a line of inquiry you already began in the fall or spring, broaden the paper topic you have chosen for another summer course, or launch something new. Your subject may be historical or contemporary, library and archive based or ethnographic. It need not necessarily take the form of a research paper. You may, for example, develop a well-researched tour of a neighborhood or thematic itinerary in the city, or, for those with the requisite skills, create a video-based exposé.

At the same time, the course will be a group experience. The research seminar will provide both an intellectual community centered upon research and a broader forum for sociability as we strive to stay connected between screens and across time zones. As such, class sessions are divided between readings that can create a structure to bridge academic work and the urgency of the political moment as well as providing a common intellectual basis for us as a group. Course meetings will take place in a variety of forums, including small workshop groups and invited speakers. Readings will provide a springboard for group discussion about conducting research in a time of crisis and social change. In addition to scheduling regular one-on-one meetings with me and organizing workshop groups, we will come together as a collective to set expectations for the seminar experience; explore questions of method, argumentation, and style; respond to one another’s work; and share in the excitement and challenges of doing research. In addition, the seminar aims to provide students with concrete skills and projects tailored to students’ professional trajectories. We will work together to develop a path from project conceptualization to completion that responds to the avenues of inquiry that you wish to pursue and the challenges you face. Students will also have the option of presenting their research in a way that allows them to hone pre-professional skills, from web design to legal writing.