Kari Lerum

My research and scholarship centers on the critical study of social inequality, focusing on the relationship between sexuality, power, and context (including: organizational, institutional, cultural, and global contexts).

In the past my research has included ethnographic research on post-industrial service work jobs including waitressing and sex work; more recently I have applied my research and scholarship to evaluating popular discourses about the “sexualization of girls,” and discourses and policies about sex work and human trafficking.

My current projects include a community-based study of transgender sex workers in the Seattle area (funded by the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies and the Pride Foundation), and an introductory sexuality studies book (“Sexuality: the Basics,” Routledge press). My public scholarship can also be found at The Conversation, Ms. Magazine Blog, Rh Reality Check, Sexuality & Society, & The Feminist Wire.