Associate Professor
Women and Gender Studies
I am a medical anthropologist who specializes in research on gender, sexuality and health, including gender-based health disparities. My first book project focused on occupational health issues among sex workers in Tijuana, Mexico. My current book project is an edited anthology of papers entitled Girls' Sexualities and the Media, to be published by Peter Lang. My next book project will focus on the social context of intervention projects for sex workers in Arizona (e.g., diversion programs, grassroots activism, anti-trafficking work, etc.).
I received my doctoral degree in Anthropology from Yale University (2003), and received post-doctoral training through NIMH-supported Research Institute, the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University).
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AFFILIATIONS
Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies, School of Social Transformation (ASU)
Graduate Faculty, School of Transborder Studies (STS, ASU)
Graduate Faculty, School for Human Evolution and Social Change (SHESCH, ASU)
Graduate Faculty, School of Justice and Social Inquiry (SJSI, ASU)
Faculty Affiliate, Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center (SIRC, ASU)
Honors Faculty, Barret Honors College (ASU)
Fellow, Society for Applied Anthropology, American Anthropological Association
Member, Society for Medical Anthropology, American Anthropological Association
Member, AIDS and Anthropology Research Group, American Anthropological Association
Member, National Women's Studies Association
Her book SEX WORK AND THE CITY: THE SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY OF HEALTH AND SAFETY IN TIJUANA MEXICO, which is based on research supported by the National Science Foundation, was released by the University of Texas Press in 2009.
THIS BOOK HAS BEEN REVIEWED IN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST! Click here to read the review.
A gateway at the U.S.-Mexico border, Tijuana is a complex urban center with a sizeable population of sex workers. An in-depth case study of the trade, Sex Work and the City is the first major ethnographic publication on contemporary prostitution in this locale, providing a detailed analysis of how sex workers' experiences and practices are shaped by policing and regulation.
Contextualizing her research within the realm of occupational risk, Yasmina Katsulis examines the experiences of a diverse range of sex workers in the region and explores the implications of prostitution, particularly regarding the spheres of class hierarchies, public health, and other broad social effects. Based on eighteen months of intensive fieldwork and nearly 400 interviews with sex workers, customers, city officials, police, local health providers, and advocates, Sex Work and the City describes the arenas of power and the potential for disenfranchisement created by municipal laws designed to regulate the trade. Providing a detailed analysis of this subculture's significance within Tijuana and its implications for debates over legalization of "vice" elsewhere in the world, Katsulis draws on powerful narratives as workers describe the risks of their world, ranging from HIV/AIDS and rape (by police or customers) to depression, work-related stress, drug and alcohol addiction, and social stigma. Insightful and compelling, Sex Work and the City captures the lives (and deaths) of a population whose industry has broad implications for contemporary society at large.
The paper back version of this book is now available!!
Book now available for purchase.