Thesis title:
A small stories approach to the construction of sex workers’ professional identities on social media.
Abstract:
My project seeks to explore the linguistic/semiotic construction of sex workers’ identities on digital platforms, paying particular attention to the storytelling practices of those involved in sex work. Sex workers’ stories will be analysed using the narrative analytic framework of small stories, which highlights the value of everyday stories produced in interaction and involves questioning essentialist links between stories and identities. The main goal of this project is to see how sex workers construct, negotiate and make sense of their professional identities through language (oral and written) and other means of semiosis (e.g. image, use of emoticons) in various digital contexts.
Research Questions
Overarching Research Question:
What kind of identities do sex workers construct through their storytelling practices on social media and how?Sub-question 1.a.: What kind of sexual/gendered identities do they claim for themselves/attribute to others in relation to their job?
Sub-question 1.b.: How does ‘digital discourse’ afford/constrain the construction of professional identities?
Sub-question 1.c.: How do sex workers make sense of their job?
Social Media:
LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/christos-sagredos-72780277
First supervisor:
Alexandra Georgakopoulou
Pathway:
7 – Linguistics, Media & Culture
Cohort:
2019-20
Publications:
Sagredos, C. (2019). The representation of sex work in the Greek Press: A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis. Journal of Language and Sexuality 8(2): 166-194. https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.18012.sag