Interest is sought for a full-time PhD student at Northumbria School of Law, to study from a socio-legal perspective, the regulation of a form of ‘illicit’ sex.
From recent legal attempts to regulate bareback pornography in California (Ashford 2015, Schachner 2014) through to ongoing debates relating to kink identities (Khan 2014), the law arguably continues to criminalise the ‘bad queer’ (Stychin 1995).
This continued criminalisation comes as we see the concomitant emergence of the homonormative legal identity (Ashford 2011, Duggan 2003) and a growing queer domesticity (Cook 2014). This raises questions about how the ‘mainstreaming’ of queer culture might impact upon contemporary queer lives and those behaviours that the law seeks to regulate. Applications which seek to address this in the context of bareback sex, sex work, public sex, or kinky sex identities will be particularly welcome, but other areas that address the central theme of this project are also encouraged. Applicants should clearly indicate where they would wish to focus the project.
Your project will provide a synthesis of theory, socio-legal analysis, and empirical work. Familiarity with and a desire to engage further with queer theory and/or feminist theory is essential.
The research will be conducted within the Gender, Sexuality and Law Research Interest Group, based within the Northumbria School of Law where you will join a thriving group of students and academic colleagues exploring gender, sexuality and law.
Enquiries regarding this studentship should be made to: Professor Chris Ashford, chris.ashford@northumbria.ac.uk.
For further details of how to apply, entry requirements and the application form, see https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/
Please ensure you quote the advert reference (BL/DRFLAW7P/61910) on your application form.
