The Finnish Sex Work Research Network (FSWRN) would like to invite researchers, activists, and artists to submit abstracts for the first FSWRN Conference in October 2026. FSWRN is an academic network connecting scholars from various disciplines in the Finnish field of sex work research, founded in 2024.
This interdisciplinary conference on sex work research has a special focus on various forms of governance and welcomes papers that engage with themes that go beyond governance. The conference aims to explore how the different forms of governance shape and affect the everyday lives of sex workers, and how sex workers navigate, negotiate, and resist these forms of governance around the world. We welcome any empirical, methodological and theoretical contributions.
While new technologies are reshaping sex work, the old debates about (de)criminalization continue. Around the world, conservative and right-wing groups are restricting the rights of LGBTQIA+ people and limiting access to healthcare, sex education, and reproductive rights. Migration regulations and the spread of anti-migrant and racist sentiments produce hostile and dangerous environments. The multifaceted governance of sex work is created by these developments, policies, laws, practices, and actors. While these practices continue to restrict commercial sex, sex workers and their allies continue to resist control and criminalization in their everyday endeavours. This conference interrogates the complexities of contemporary sex work in online and offline environments.
We invite submissions from researchers, activists, and artists with and without lived experience of sex work, who explore sex work from feminist, anti-racist, decolonial, and trans-inclusive perspectives.
Topic areas may include, but are not limited to:
- Policy, law and control
- Discourses, narratives and debates
- Stigma, attitudes and effects
- Resistance, solutions and utopias
- Work and labour in changing offline and online environments
- Lived experiences in public and private spheres
- (Social) Media representations
- Sex work art and activism
- Technology and sex work
- Historical research on sex work
The conference will have keynote speeches by Laura Graham from Northumbria University and Katie Cruz from the University of Bristol.
Please submit abstracts of a maximum of 350 words using
The deadline for submitting the abstracts is Sunday, 19 July 2026.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at
Conference fee:
Information about conference fees and registration will be available later on our
Important dates:
19 July 2026: Deadline for submission of abstracts
7 August 2026: Notification of acceptance
13 September 2026: Registration deadline
22-23 October 2026: Conference at the University of Helsinki, Finland
For more details, visit
The conference is organised by the Finnish Sex Work Research Network (FSWRN) and the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Helsinki. The conference is funded by the University of Helsinki and the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies.
FSWRN email
FSWRN on