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Katie Cruz joined the law school in September 2013. She holds an LLB from King's College, London and an MA in Socio-Legal and Criminological Research from the University of Nottingham where she is a completing an ESRC funded PhD. Her PhD research critically explores sex worker rights activists demands for rights in the UK. Katie has taught previously at the University of Kent and Birkbeck College. In 2013 Katie was a visiting scholar in the Women's Studies Dept, Duke University. She has presented her research in the UK and internationally.
Katie specialises in feminist, poststructural and Marxist theory, and has a particular interest in the intersection of theory and activism and critiques of rights discourse. Her PhD research employs a combination of these theoretical approaches, qualitative research methods and doctrinal analysis in order to reflect on the possibilities, effects and limits of rights demanded by sex worker rights activists in the UK. Katie is more broadly interested in informal gendered forms of labour, labour rights and organising, and alternative models of welfare.
- K Cruz, ‘Unmanageable Work, (Un)liveable Lives: The UK Sex Industry, Labour Rights and the Welfare State' (2013) Social and Legal Studies. Available online:http://sls.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/05/22/0964663913484639.abstract
- K Cruz, ‘V E Munro and M Della Giusta (eds) Demanding Sex: Critical Reflections on the Regulation of Prostitution’ (Aldershot, Ashgate 2008) 17 (2009) Feminist Legal Studies 109-114
- X Whittaker, C Barbagallo and K Cruz et al (eds) (2010) A report by the x:talk project, ‘Human rights, sex work and the challenge of trafficking.’ Funded by the Daphne Programme, European Commission.http://www.xtalkproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/reportfinal1.pdf
- ‘Sex Work as or against Wage Labour.’ 15th Annual Marxist Reading Group, University of Florida 2013
- ‘The problem with (sex) work and labour law.’ Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick. Conference title: ‘A Conversation on The Problem with Work’ November 2012
- ‘Regulating Prostitution and the Global Trafficking debate.’ Invited lecture, Birkbeck College, MA course in Gender, Sexuality and Criminal Justice, March 2012
- ‘Exploring the relationship between feminist theory and practice in the UK: Governance feminism, radical feminism and sex work.’ Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference, Sussex University 2011.
- ‘On the Complexities of Feminisms, and Feminist Engagement with the State: Governance Feminism, Radical Feminism and Sex Work in the UK.’ 2nd Annual Postgraduate Sex Work Conference, Leeds University 2011.
