{"id":19009,"date":"2026-08-24T10:42:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/?p=19009"},"modified":"2026-08-24T10:42:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T14:42:53","slug":"new-publication-by-megan-rivers-moore-almost-paradise-heterosexual-migration-and-the-search-for-sexual-freedom-in-costa-rica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/2026\/new-publication-by-megan-rivers-moore-almost-paradise-heterosexual-migration-and-the-search-for-sexual-freedom-in-costa-rica\/","title":{"rendered":"New Publication by Megan Rivers-Moore Almost paradise: heterosexual migration and the search for sexual freedom in Costa Rica"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        New Publication by Megan Rivers-Moore Almost paradise: heterosexual migration and the search for sexual freedom in Costa Rica\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                                    \n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Feminist Institute of Social Transformation (FIST) is pleased to share a new publication by <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/people\/megan-rivers-moore\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Megan Rivers-Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Based on in-depth interviews with North American men who have migrated to San Jos\u00e9, Costa Rica, this article examines how sexuality and masculinity shape transnational mobility. While these migrants distinguish themselves from sex tourists, their migration trajectories are closely linked to prior participation in the local sex industry. Drawing on queer migration scholarship and research on lifestyle migration, the article argues that heterosexuality\u2014often treated as an unmarked norm\u2014structures migration processes and should be analyzed as such. The men interviewed describe leaving what they perceive as a conservative United States in search of greater sexual freedom in Latin America, complicating assumptions that sexual freedom is pursued primarily through queer or South\u2013North migration. Their experiences, however, reveal the limits of this imagined freedom, as migrants frequently encounter economic precarity, social isolation, and disappointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/people\/megan-rivers-moore\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Megan Rivers-Moore<\/a> is the Director and Associate Professor at the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation at Carleton University. Her research focuses on how gender and sexuality operate transnationally, including projects on sex tourism in Costa Rica, sex worker organizing across Latin America, and clandestine abortion. Working at the intersections of sociology, gender studies, and Latin American and Caribbean studies, her scholarship examines labour, migration, and feminist political economy, with a strong commitment to community-engaged and activist research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This publication reflects the continued impact of her research in advancing critical conversations on labour, gender, and collective organizing. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/0966369X.2026.2705908#abstract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read the full article here<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Based on in-depth interviews with North American men who have migrated to San Jos\u00e9, Costa Rica, this article examines how sexuality and masculinity shape transnational mobility. While these migrants distinguish themselves from sex tourists, their migration trajectories are closely linked to prior participation in the local sex industry. Drawing on queer migration scholarship and research [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":514,"featured_media":18842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/514"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19010,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19009\/revisions\/19010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}