Laura María Agustín

{{short description|Sociologist}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix = Dr. | name = Laura María Agustín | honorific_suffix = | image = Laura Agustín 2013, Dublin Anarchist Bookfair - 1.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Agustín in 2013 speaking at Dublin Anarchist Bookfair | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date =  | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | region = | nationality = | other_names = The Naked Anthropologist | occupation = | period = | known_for = Studying undocumented migration, informal labor markets, trafficking, and the sex industry | title = | boards =  | spouse = | children = | awards =  | website = {{URL|lauraagustin.com}} | education = | alma_mater = [[Open University]] | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = Tony Bennett | influences =  | era = | discipline = Anthropology | sub_discipline =  | workplaces = [[University of Neuchatel]] | doctoral_students = | notable_students =  | main_interests = | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }}

'''Laura María Agustín''' is an anthropologist who studies [[Illegal emigration|illegal migration]], informal labor markets, trafficking, and the [[sex industry]]. Blogging and speaking publicly as the Naked Anthropologist, she is critical of the conflation of the terms "[[human trafficking]]" and "[[prostitution]]". She argues that what she calls the "rescue industry" often ascribes victim status to people (most often women) who have made conscious and rational decisions to migrate knowing they will be selling sex, and who do not consider themselves to be victims. She states that such views on prostitution originate in what she calls "[[fundamentalist]] feminism".<ref name=reason>Kerry Howley, [http://www.reason.com/news/show/124093.html The Myth of the Migrant], ''[[Reason Magazine]]'', 26 December 2007</ref> She advocates for a cultural study of commercial sex, a theoretical framework she created in the journal Sexualities in 2005.<ref name=lma>Laura María Agustín (2005), [http://www.lauraagustin.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/LAgustin_Cultural_Study_of_Commercial_Sex.pdf The Cultural Study of Commercial Sex], ''Sexualities'', Vol 8(5): 681–694</ref>

Agustín carried out research on migration and sex work on the [[Mexico-United States border]], in the [[Caribbean]], in South America, and in several European countries.<ref name=reason/> She did participatory research for several years with a range of social actors aiming to help migrants in Spain. She received a [[Ph.D.]] in Cultural Studies and Sociology from the [[Open University]], United Kingdom, in 2004, with Tony Bennett as her supervisor.<ref name=lma/>

Her first book, ''Trabajar en la industria del sexo, y otros tópicos migratorios'', was published in Spain in 2004 (Gakoa, {{ISBN|84-87303-79-X}}). In 2007, she published her second book, ''Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry'' (Zed Books, {{ISBN|1-84277-860-9}}). In this book, she argued that contemporary anti-trafficking "crusades" have the effect of restricting international freedom of movement, and she compared today's anti-trafficking feminists with the "bourgeois women" of the 19th century who felt the need to save poor prostitutes, seeing women as weak, easily victimized, and in need of guidance. Agustín does not deny human trafficking or forced prostitution takes place, but, rather, argues that the campaigners against prostitution and undocumented migration over-estimate figures.<ref>Brendan O'Neill, [http://www.newstatesman.com/200803270046 The myth of trafficking], ''[[New Statesman]]'', 27 March 2008</ref>

Agustín publishes in Spanish, English, and Swedish. In 2010, she was visiting professor in Gender and Migration in the Swiss university system, based at the [[University of Neuchatel]], and participated in the Battle of Ideas in London.

==References== {{Reflist|2}}

==External links== * [http://www.lauraagustin.com/ Website and Blog of Laura Agustín - the Naked Anthropologist, with list of publications] * [https://www.theguardian.com/profile/lauraagustin Guardian Profile] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20081223072026/http://nsrc.sfsu.edu/article/sex_trafficking The Sex in Sex Trafficking] by Laura Agustín, in ''American Sexuality'', 28 November 2007 * [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/nov/19/humantrafficking-prostitution/ The Shadowy World of Sex Across Borders] by Laura Agustín, in ''The Guardian'', 19 November 2008 * [https://archive.today/20130218081145/http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=320 Border Thinking] by Laura Agustín, in ''Re-public'', June 2008] * [http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#071115 Radio interview with Agustin], 15 November 2007 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080609230114/http://www.nodo50.org/feminismos/spip.php?article44 Review of ''Trabajar en la industria del sexo''] {{in lang|es}} * [http://www.ucd.ie/humanities/events/podcasts/2013/laura-agustin-rescue-industry/ Podcast of lecture - Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry] * Reviews of ''Sex at the Margins'' ** [http://www.newstatesman.com/200803270046 The myth of trafficking], ''[[New Statesman]]'', 27 March 2008 ** [http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/reviewofbooks_article/5027/ Exploding the myth of trafficking], ''[[Spiked Review of Books]]'', April 2008 ** [http://www.eroticreviewmagazine.org/issues/article.asp?article=216 All You Need To Know About Sex Trafficking, Harriet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726033934/http://www.eroticreviewmagazine.org/issues/article.asp?article=216 |date=2011-07-26 }}, ''[[Erotic Review|The Erotic Review]]'', issue 86, February 2008

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agustin, Laura Maria}} [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Sex worker activists]] [[Category:Sex industry researchers]] [[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]] [[Category:21st-century anthropologists]] [[Category:Alumni of the Open University]] [[Category:21st-century women scientists]]