230609 Challenging Dichotomies – Academic Ambiguity and the Case of Sex Work (BS) (WiSe 2026/2027)

In an academic sphere that tends toward rigid binaries, sex work unsettles simplistic categorization and questions what constitutes agency, exploitation, work, and much more. Despite plentiful evidence, however, that sex work is not monolithic, few academic accounts acknowledge this ambiguity, and the academic work is deeply polarized by competing narratives. By engaging with differing theoretical discourses on sex work and investigating the resulting tensions, it is the goal of this class to move beyond oversimplified categorizations that either wholly condemn or celebrate it as inherently bad or good. Such reductionist approaches are not restricted to debates on sex work, but point to a general tendency in contemporary academic discourses, which are characterized by a demand for categorical clarity. If discourses are structured by such either-or dichotomies, socio-cultural phenomena that elude simple categorization within binary paradigms are often marginalized or misunderstood. This hampers efforts to raise consciousness for pressing issues related to these phenomena. Rather than disregarding contradictions or seeking to eliminate and resolve them, acknowledging / tolerating / embracing ambiguity can thus inspire a deeper engagement with sex work (and complex socio-cultural phenomena, in general), allowing for more constructive debates about structural conditions and lived realities.
This seminar provides an introduction to some of the central theoretical perspectives, concepts, models, and methods that are generally relevant to British and American cultural studies. By applying these different theories to the selected case study of sex work, students will learn how to discuss various possibilities for defining complex socio-cultural phenomena. The underlying course objective is, on the one hand, for students to recognize the theory-dependence of scholarly inquiry as well as the necessity of a meta-level of academic reflection. On the other hand, this class teaches students to see ambiguity in socio-cultural phenomena as a space of possibility, embracing the complexities of lived experience as a site of both criticism and transformation.