Qatar World Cup I: Sex Trafficking and Global Sporting Events

Join us for a book talk with Greg Mitchell, featuring his new book  Panics Without Borders. How Global Sporting Events Drive Myths about Sex Trafficking in the Sawyer Library Reading Room.  Light refreshments will be served.

Greg Mitchell is Chair and Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Faculty Affiliate in Anthropology/Sociology. He studies sex work, race, and discourses of sex trafficking as well as the effects of public policy approaches.  At present, he is conducting research funded by the National Science Foundation to examine how states incentivize particular narratives and performances of nationalism in their attempts to police female sex workers, especially during global sporting events. His first book, Tourist Attractions: Performing Masculinity & Race in Brazil’s Sexual Economy, is an ethnography of men who sell sex in several cities in Brazil (University of Chicago Press, 2016).

His second book, “Panics without Borders: Fallacious Spectacles, Global Sporting Events, and the Production of Sex Trafficking”  (University of California Press, 2022 through its New Sexual Worlds Series), examines police violence against female sex workers during periods preceding mega-events like the World Cup and the Olympics.  In particular, it explores the overlapping interests of evangelical Christian groups, radical feminist organizations, neoliberal business developers, and corrupt state security apparatuses.  This book uses ethnography, including interviews with sex workers, politicians, activists, policy makers, and intelligence officials to examine nationalistic spectacles deployed during such events.

Sponsored by the Program in Global Studies.