Radical Spotlights: Desire, Sexuality, and the Economy
- Date
- Monday 7 July 2025
- Time
- Address
- Zoom
We are excited to announce the next Radical Spotlights seminar, a collaboration of the Society for Economic Anthropology (SEA) in the AAA and the Network Anthropology of Economy in the EASA. The series spotlights critical research in economic anthropology across the globe twice a year. Please feel free to share widely. Want to be involved in Radical Spotlights? Please contact the organizers.
Theme
Desire and sexuality are integral to economic and political life, from intimate spheres to social reproduction. Queer and trans anthropologies challenge economic anthropology with perspectives that explore the interplay between desire, sexuality, and economic systems. This Radical Spotlight seminar explores what economic and queer anthropology have to offer to one another.
Examining social reproduction through a non-cis-heteronormative lens reveals biases in understanding how desire and sexuality interact with capitalism and other economic and political structures. Scholars "queering" economic life investigate how livelihoods give rise to or hinder the expression of desires and identities, and how kinship and households can be sites of both violence and solidarity.
New approaches that queer capitalism illuminate the erotic dimensions of economic structures. They shed new light on the enabling, controlling, and exploiting of sexual and gendered expression. This raises questions about the interplay between sexuality, racialization, and ideas of supremacy, as well as the value-generating potential of queer economies. The coexistence of queer capitalism with widespread violence against queer and trans people raises questions about capitalism and individual freedom.
Speakers
Vaibhav Saria
Assistant Professor Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, Simon Fraser University
The Traffic in Trans Women: Hijras, Kinship, and Liberalism
Margot Weiss
Associate Professor of American Studies and Anthropology, Wesleyan University
Desire/Capitalism and Other Queer Provocations
Valentini Sampethai
PhD Candidate, Social Anthropology, Panteion University
Desire, Difference, and Extraction: The Production of Value in the Greek Sex Industry and in Sex Work Research
Organisation
Andreas Streinzer, University of Vienna and Erik Bähre, Leiden University