External Evaluation

The Steering Committee

The Student Sex Work Project is very fortunate to have the support of a number of key individuals who are working with us to help us to achieve our aims. Two key individuals who sit on the external steering committee are Professor Maggie O’Neil from Durham University and Judy Jenkins from Swansea University.

The role of the steering group is to provide external formative monitoring to ensure that the project meets set deadlines and achieves its overall aim and specific outcomes. You can read more about Maggie and Judy below;

As a Professor of Criminology, Maggie has published widely on the subject of sex work. She joined Durham University in February 2010 and has extensive experience of working in inter-disciplinary contexts with expertise in critical and cultural criminology. Her research activity and outcomes include the development of theory; a focus upon innovative biographical, cultural and participatory research methodologies; and the production of praxis – knowledge which addresses and intervenes in public policy. Without question Maggie’s research activity has been instrumental in moving forward debates, dialogue and scholarship in three substantive areas: prostitution and the commercial sex industry (since 1990); forced migration and the asylum-migration nexus (since 1999); innovative participatory, performative and visual methodologies (since 1990).

http://www.dur.ac.uk/sass/staff/profile/?id=8314

Judy is a lecturer in health informatics in the College of Medicine, Swansea University. Her background is diverse, and after more than ten years working for the NHS in a variety of roles, she moved to Swansea University in 1993 becoming part of the health informatics team. She is an experienced project manager, writer and editor, having been responsible for the provision of an internet based health promotion and advisory service for Virgin net. With a special interest in counselling, she became an online agony aunt, focusing on relationship and sexual health problems, as well as eating disorders. A qualified teacher, Judy is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a passionate advocate for student well being.

Teela Sanders (Project Evaluator)

Dr. Teela Sanders is a Reader in Sociology at the School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds. Her research focus is on the intersections between gender, regulation and the sex industry, with a focus on exploring hidden economies. Her monographs include Sex Work: A Risky Business (2005) and Paying for Pleasure: Men who Buy Sex (2008). Prostitution: Sex Work, Policy and Politics (Sage, 2009) is co-written with Jane Pitcher and Maggie O’Neill.

With Dr. Kate Hardy, Sanders has recently completed a large scale project funded by the ESRC on the lap dancing industry. This project uncovered working conditions of dancers and will be detailed in the forthcoming book, Flexible Workers: Labour, Regulation and Mobility in Lap Dancing (Routledge, 2014). An ESRC Follow on award for further dissemination and impact from this study has been awarded. Working with Rosie Campbell, the project aims to influence Sex Entertainment Venues licensing policy and create innovative impact by creating an Iphone App for dancers with safety, self employment rights and tax awareness information. Information about the project can be found at:

http://www.sociology.leeds.ac.uk/research/projects/regulatory-dance.php

Rosie Campbell (Project Evaluator)

Rosie Campbell (BA, MA) is a Sociologist whose specialist area of research is sex work and sexual exploitation, on which she has carried out research for 17 years and has published widely. Her research work has taken place in a number of regions throughout the UK and she is considered an expert on the sex industry and sex work support service provision in the UK. Her research and evaluation work has often been participatory in nature and has involved the review of multi agency community safety responses to sex work. She has worked with sex work and sexual exploitation projects throughout the UK in her research work and via her involvement with the UK Network of Sex Work Projects. She was a founder member of UKNSWP, Chair (2002-2009) and now supports UKNSWP as Chair of the National Ugly Mugs Pilot Advisory Group & is a Champion of the scheme which she was involved in setting up.

Rosie has worked directly as a sessional outreach and support worker for 14 years and has been active in establishing and developing a number of sex work support and sexual exploitation projects within both a trustee and manager role e.g. between 2005-2008 she was the Co-ordinator of Armistead Street & Portside, Merseyside and she is currently a Trustee for Manchester Action on Street Health. She has been involved in the development of good practice guidance for service interventions for sex workers and in developing policies and services related to sex work at local and national levels. She has been a member of a range of national advisory and consultation groups relating to sex work and sexual exploitation policy. She is an advocate for the human and labour rights of sex workers. She has particular expertise in policy and intervention matters re sexual violence and was a Third Sector representative on the Department of Health, Response to Sexual Violence National Support Team.

Rosie is currently a researcher in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds, where she is working on an ESRC follow on project “Sex Entertainment Venues Regulating Working Conditions” with Dr Teela Sanders. She is completing her PhD part time at the School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, which is focusing on Merseyside’s policy of addressing crimes against sex workers as hate crime.