Presenter: Ntokozo Yingwana
Date: Wednesday, 6 August 2025
Time: 12:30 – 13:45
Venue: ACMS Seminar Room: Room 2163, Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor), East Campus, Wits University (directions)
Zoom link: https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/95786624514?pwd=53Oi1h6gHcWY2Q43O0p8ZqzOsOLZXp.1
Register: https://tinyurl.com/4zxkc7s8
Abstract:
Drawing from a doctoral thesis with a similar title, this paper explores the intersections of sex work, mobility, migration and gendered sexualities through a queer lens. The study informing it made use of digital storytelling and WhatsApp to engage 17 migrant and mobile sex workers in South Africa, during 2019 and 2020. Through a queering of sex work, migration and mobility analysis we learn that because sex work is essentially about using one’s body to perform varying sexual acts with different types of people for financial gain, a migrant/mobile sex worker is exposed to different ways of experiencing sexual (dis)pleasure. According to the research participants this can then broaden the body’s erotic vocabulary and expand one’s range of sexual desires, along with their expressions; to the point whereby it can also have an influence on one’s gendered sexuality and choice of intimate partner. However, the respondents also stressed the integral role movement plays in this evolution of one’s gendered sexuality. Hence, this paper argues for the recognition of migrant/mobile sex work as intrinsically queer, and concludes by unpacking the socio-political implications of this in relation to (sexual) citizenship.
About the researcher:
Ntokozo Yingwana is a researcher and PhD candidate with the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at Wits University. She holds a Masters in Gender and Development from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, and an Honours in Gender and Transformation from the African Gender Institute (AGI) at the University of Cape Town. Prior to that she earned a Bachelor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University. Yingwana has nearly two decades of experience in sex worker rights’ scholar-activism in Africa.
