Call for papers: The Struggle against the Commercialization of Sexuality in Israel and the World: An interdisciplinary conference on the sex industry (March, 16-17, 2020)
Zefat Academic College
Guest Speakers: Dr. Judith Reisman (US) and Ms. Gunilla Ekberg (Sweden)
The huge sex industry in modern times entails far reaching implications in the economic, political, gender, cultural, moral, educational, and in other contexts. The conference will elaborate on them. The conference main approach is that the meaning of prostitution, trafficking in women, pornography and other similar social phenomena is the commodification of human beings and the preservation of gender hierarchy in society.
Exploring the sex industry necessitates a profound examination of its power to break through geographic, cultural and age barriers and of its background: the globally increasing immigration that generates the international market of prostitution through the exploitation of female immigrants’ vulnerability and the supply of male immigrants’ demand for paid sex; The Capitalistic economy and the growing consumerism, that enable and encourage the commodification of sexuality; The liberal discourse that provides social legitimization to the ‘traditional’ and the photographed prostitution; The technology that breaks through time, culture and state barriers, generating endless space for the industrial photographed prostitution; the expansion of the sex industry beyond age and gender boundaries.
The role of the state in the existence of the sex industry is associated with practices of legislation and law enforcement and with preventive and rehabilitation strategies. The way governments are handling the growing and strengthening sex industry in the world reflects social, philosophical, economic and cultural values of the society and the state.
The conference will deal with these issues and others from divergent perspectives. Researchers from the spheres of social science, law, social work, education, health studies, media and art, are invited to propose topics for discussions in the conference, following the above description.
Please send until December 2, 2019, to conf.march2020@zefat.ac.co, a title, an abstract (250- 300 words) and a short bio (50-70 words), with institutional affiliation, research and teaching topics.
Organizing committee: Prof. Esther Hertzog, Prof. Yaffa Moskovich, Dr. Tal Meler, Dr. Etti Boehm-Tabib, Dr. Niveen Hassan-Abbas