Wednesday, November 29, 2017

8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Hiebert Lounge
72 East Concord Street
Boston

The form of commercial sex that some people call prostitution and others call sex work is presently illegal to sell and to buy in the United States, with the exception of 11 counties in Nevada where it is legalized. The public health community is not unified in its perspective on policy options. The purpose of this symposium is to use a public health framework to consider the potential advantages and disadvantages of legalizing or decriminalizing commercial sex in the United States. Speakers will address the harms of criminalizing the buying and selling of sex as well as the need to reduce human trafficking. Lessons learned in the global context will be considered. The objective of the symposium is to equip attendees with a richer understanding of the issue and the likely implications of supporting the legislative options under consideration.

Agenda

8:30 a.m. – 8:50 a.m.

Breakfast and Informal Greetings

8:50 a.m. – 9 a.m.

WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS

Sandro Galea

Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health

Emily Rothman

Associate Professor, Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health

9 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.

SEXUAL COMMERCE IN NEOLIBERAL TIMES: POLICY, POLITICS AND NEVADA’S LEGAL BROTHELS

Barbara G. Brents

Professor, Sociology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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Barbara G. Brents is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Brents researches sex and gender in market culture. She is a co-author, with Crystal Jackson and Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan, of  The State of Sex: Tourism, Sex and Sin in the New American Heartland  (Routledge Press, 2010), a comprehensive study of Nevada’s legal brothels—the only legal US brothel industry. Her work on prostitution regulation; political debates around prostitution; the relationship between tourism, consumption, and sexuality; and the emotional and bodily labor of selling sex has been published in numerous scholarly publications. Brents’ work has been featured in a wide variety of media, including  The New York Times ,  Newsweek ,  Rolling Stone , the  Chronicle of Higher Education , and  The Wall Street Journal ．

9:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

GENDER EQUALITY AND COMMERCIAL SEX IN THE GLOBAL CONTEXT

Saniye Gülser Corat

Director, Division for Gender Equality, Office of the Director-General, UNESCO

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Sa

10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.

Break

10:45 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

CHILD TRAFFICKING AS A HUMAN RIGHTS AND RACIAL JUSTICE ISSUE

Malika Saada Saar

Senior Counsel on Civil and Human Rights, Google

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妈 Daily Beast ,  Huffington Post ,  O: The Oprah Magazine ,  Newsweek ,  Politico ,  The Washington Post ,  San Francisco Chronicle ,  USA Today ,  Elle ,  Redbook Magazine ,  Essence , the  Tavis Smiley Show , BBC, ABC News,  Good Morning America , CNN, and National Public Radio. She has also been honored with Brown University’s highest alumni award, the William Rogers Award, and by Georgetown Law Center’s esteemed Robert F. Drinan Award for Public Service. Saada Saar holds a BA from Brown University, an MA in education from Stanford University, and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center.

11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.

SEXUAL LABOR AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Emily A. Owens

Assistant Professor, History, Brown University

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Emily A. Owens is an assistant professor of history at Brown University and works on the history of sexuality and slavery. Her current book project,  Fantasies of Consent: Sex, Affect, and Commerce in 19th Century New Orleans , is a cultural and legal history of the sex trade in antebellum New Orleans. This project explores the lives of women of color who sold (or were sold for) sex in that market, as well as the legal, economic, and affective structures that determined much of their existence. Owens has received support from the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Charles Warren Center for American History, and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF). In addition to her appointment in History, Owens also acts as a faculty fellow at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice (2016–2019).

12 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.

THE REALITY OF THE SEX INDUSTRY FROM A SURVIVOR’S PERSPECTIVE 

Audrey Morrissey

Associate Director, My Life My Choice, Justice Resource Institute

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非盟

12:30 p.m. – 12:45 p.m.

Pick up boxed lunch. 

12:45 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

VARIOUS POLICIES, DIVERGENT HEALTH OUTCOMES: UNRESOLVED TENSIONS IN THE FIELD OF COMMERCIAL SEX

Sharon S. Oselin

Associate Director, Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies and Associate Professor, Sociology, University of California, Riverside

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Sharon S. Oselin is an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Riverside, and the associate director of the Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies. Much of her work focuses on crime and gender, with a particular emphasis on sex work. In addition to a number of journal articles, she is the author of  Leaving Prostitution: Getting Out and Staying Out of Sex Work  (2014, NYU Press). She is currently working on a project that examines the ways in which gentrification impacts those engaged in the illicit shadow economy by drawing on the case of street-based sex workers in Washington, DC.

1:30 p.m. – 2 p.m.

LOST IN TRAFFIC: SEX WORK, TRAFFICKING, AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Bobbi Taylor

Chair, Steering Committee, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition

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As Chair of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, Mx Taylor serves as a trans rights activist and public educator. Mx Taylor is also a member of the Massachusetts State Commission on Unaccompanied Homeless Youth, the Fenway Board of Visitors, and the Massachusetts Sex Worker Ally Network. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Master’s degree in social work, Mx Taylor has also served with such organizations as the Northwest AIDS Foundation, the Seattle Crisis Clinic, and the Boston Bisexual Resource Center. As a parent, partner, and community member, Mx Taylor shares in the work of advancing policies and practices that embrace social justice, racial awareness, intersectionality, and feminist values.

2 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

DECRIMINALIZING PROSTITUTION TO IMPROVE PUBLIC HEALTH AND ADVANCE HUMAN RIGHTS: AN EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY?

Michael Shively

Senior Associate, Abt Associates

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心肌梗死

2:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: HELPING ADOLESCENTS SITUATE THEMSELVES IN RELATION TO COMMERCIAL SEX 

Jeff R. Temple

Professor and Director, Behavioral Health and Research, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Texas Medical Branch

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Jeff R. Temple is a professor, licensed psychologist, and director of behavioral health and research in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. His research focuses on interpersonal relationships, with a particular focus on adolescent relationship abuse. Temple has been awarded multiple research grants from the National Institute of Justice, National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has more than 125 scholarly publications in a variety of high-impact journals, including  JAMA ,  JAMA Pediatrics ,  Journal of Youth and Adolescence ,  Pediatrics , and the  Journal of Adolescent Health . He is an associate editor for the  Journal of Primary Prevention , is a senior consulting editor for the  Psychology of Violence , and is on the editorial boards of five other scientific journals. Temple recently co-chaired the Texas Task Force on Domestic Violence and is now on the Board of Directors of the Texas Psychological Association. Locally, he is vice president of the Galveston Independent School District Board of Trustees.