Research & Scholarship
My research and scholarship centers on the critical study of social inequality, focusing on the relationship between sexuality, power, and context (including: organizational, institutional, cultural, and global contexts).
Current Projects
- Sexuality: The Basics (Book project, Routledge Press)
- Policy Brief writing (I am part of a U.S. team of human rights/sex worker activists and academics responding to the United Nation's Universal Periodic Review in Nov. 2010, where a number of human rights violations were reported including those against U.S. based sex workers.)
Select Publications
For a full listing of my publications, please see my CV.
- (forthcoming 2011) Wahab, S., Baker, L., Lerum, K., Smith, J. Cooper, K. "Exotic Dance Research: A Review of the Literature from 1970 to 2008." Sexuality & Culture.
- Lerum, K., and Dworkin, S. 2009.. “‘Bad Girls Rule’: An Interdisciplinary Feminist Commentary on the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls.” Journal of Sex Research 46. 4.
- Lerum, K., and Dworkin, S. 2009. “Toward an Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Youth, Sexualization, and Health.” Journal of Sex Research 46. 4.
- Lerum, K. 2008. “Sexuality and Reproduction.” Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, v. 2. Sage.
- Lerum, K. 2004. “Sexuality, Power, and Camaraderie in Service Work.” Gender & Society, 18, 6. 756-776.
- Lerum, K. 2001. “Subjects of Desire: Academic Armor, Intimate Ethnography, & the Production of Critical Knowledge.” Qualitative Inquiry, 7, 4, Pp. 466-483.
- Lerum, K. 2001. "'Precarious Situations' in a Strip Club: Exotic Dancers and the Problem of Reality Maintenance." In The Production of Reality: Essays and Readings in Social Psychology (3rd edition), Pp. 279-287, edited by Peter Kollock and Jodi O'Brien. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2001. (Reprinted in the 4rd edition, 2006).
- Lerum, Kari.1998. "12-Step Feminism Makes Sex Workers Sick: How the State and the Recovery Movement Turn Radical Women into ‘Useless Citizens’." Sexuality & Culture, 2, Pp. 7-36.
Select Blog Articles
I am a frequent blogger for Sexuality & Society (a sociology-based blog sponsored by Contexts magazine) and Ms. Magazine. Below are links to a selection of my articles.
- Burlesque Is So Gay. And That’s A Good Thing. December 2, 2010 by Kari Lerum. Ms Magazine Blog.
- Interested in Bully-Free Zones? (or Not?). by Kari Lerum, Nov 18, 2010. Sexuality & Society.
- In annuling contract with O’Brien, Marquette can assume its Mission(ary) Position. by Kari Lerum, May 12, 2010. Sexuality & Society
- Sex Addiction clinics as Capitalist confession booths. by Kari Lerum, May 2, 2010. Sexuality & Society.
- Catholic Priests, Sexual Abuse, and learning how to talk about sex in church
by Kari Lerum, Mar 29, 2010.Sexuality & Society. - Making Hate Fun: Facebook users continue to joke en masse about killing “hookers”. by Kari Lerum, Feb 12, 2010. Sexuality & Society.
- In search of the “so-called G-spot”. by Kari Lerum, Jan 6, 2010. Sexuality & Society.
- Iceland’s Abolitionist stance. by Kari Lerum, Apr 3, 2010. Sexuality & Society.
- Top Ten Sexual Stories of 2009. by Kari Lerum and Shari L. Dworkin, Dec 31, 2009. Sexuality & Society.
- The real problem with “sexting”: Adult complicity in labeling teens “sluts,” “perverts,” and “criminals”by Kari Lerum, Dec 23, 2009. Sexuality & Society.
- Growing global opposition to Ugandan “kill the gays bill”. by Kari Lerum, Dec 14, 2009. Sexuality & Society.
- Pure Fashion Policing, by Kari Lerum, Dec 7, 2009. Sexuality & Society.
- The New Abolitionists and their critics (second in a series on Anti-Trafficking efforts). by Kari Lerum, Oct 21, 2009. Sexuality & Society.
- Abstaining from evidence during National Sex Education week. by Kari Lerum, Oct 2, 2009. Sexuality & Society.