The Global and International Studies Program would like to announce our seventh Works-in-Progress speaker, Dr. Megan Rivers-Moore, whose paper “Sex Work and Pragmatic Penance in Neoliberal Costa Rica'” will be presented on Friday, April 8th at 12pm in 2404R River Building. The discussant for this paper will be Dr. Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan (Anthropology Department, Carleton University).
All papers will be pre-circulated two weeks in advance of each paper presentation. Please register in advance using the form below in order to receive copies of discussion papers.
Based on ethnographic research in San José, Costa Rica, this paper analyses the relationships that sex workers have with an Evangelical Christian non-governmental organization (NGO) aimed at helping them exit the sex industry. Sex workers participate in various forms of what I call “pragmatic penance”, the strategic performance of victimhood. I argue that both how sex workers are helped and how sex workers take advantage of the help being offered have been shaped by the broader structural context of neoliberalism, which favours paying attention to individual problems rather than systemic issues. The paper considers the lived experiences of helping and being helped when labour politics are on the decline in favour of entrepreneurial self-improvement.