Niina Vuolajärvi
Niina Vuolajärvi (Ph.D.) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Zolberg Institute of Migration and Mobility at the New School of Social Research and a Global Scholar at the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on cultures and technologies of governance, migration, sex work, and precarization. Niina has also explored the legacies of colonialism in the Nordic region.
In her ethnographic dissertation, she examined a feminist-inspired prostitution and anti-trafficking policy approach and its intersections with immigration controls from the perspective of migrant sex workers. Her dissertation draws on large-scale ethnographic, interview and media data, including 210 interviews with migrant sex workers, policy-makers, police forces and activists in the Nordic region (Sweden, Norway, Finland) where the approach originates.
Niina has compiled a scientific report on the impacts of the Sex Purchase Act in Sweden for the Association for Gender Studies in Finland. From 2013-2017 he was part of the management and steering committee of an EU-funded research network 'ProsPol: Comparing European Prostitution Policies: Understanding Scales and Cultures of Governance'
http://www.cost.eu/domains_actions/isch/Actions/IS1209.
Niina is also a part of an artist-researcher-journalist collaborative project on deportees from Europe funded by the Kone Foundation. The project won the Visual Journalism of the Year Award 2017 in Finland. The core of the project is a journalistic photo book on deportees and their post-deportation experiences. A city event, a theater play, and a seminar were organized in fall 2016. See http://www.karkotetut.com
In Finland, Niina worked in a grassroots level migrants' rights advocacy network "Free movement", and co-founded a feminist network "Feminist Initiative" promoting rights-based prostitution policies.
Supervisors: Arlene Stein and Carole Vance
In her ethnographic dissertation, she examined a feminist-inspired prostitution and anti-trafficking policy approach and its intersections with immigration controls from the perspective of migrant sex workers. Her dissertation draws on large-scale ethnographic, interview and media data, including 210 interviews with migrant sex workers, policy-makers, police forces and activists in the Nordic region (Sweden, Norway, Finland) where the approach originates.
Niina has compiled a scientific report on the impacts of the Sex Purchase Act in Sweden for the Association for Gender Studies in Finland. From 2013-2017 he was part of the management and steering committee of an EU-funded research network 'ProsPol: Comparing European Prostitution Policies: Understanding Scales and Cultures of Governance'
http://www.cost.eu/domains_actions/isch/Actions/IS1209.
Niina is also a part of an artist-researcher-journalist collaborative project on deportees from Europe funded by the Kone Foundation. The project won the Visual Journalism of the Year Award 2017 in Finland. The core of the project is a journalistic photo book on deportees and their post-deportation experiences. A city event, a theater play, and a seminar were organized in fall 2016. See http://www.karkotetut.com
In Finland, Niina worked in a grassroots level migrants' rights advocacy network "Free movement", and co-founded a feminist network "Feminist Initiative" promoting rights-based prostitution policies.
Supervisors: Arlene Stein and Carole Vance
less
InterestsView All (20)
Uploads
Papers by Niina Vuolajärvi
Den finländska jämställdhetsdiskursen återskapar ofta det könsforskningen kallar “två-könsmodellen”. Men-, jämställdhetspolitik handlar, menar vi, om mera än bara kvinnor och män.
This article examines the meaning of borders – the spaces where immigration policies and restrictions are materially condensed – in the lives of migrant sex workers. I provide a theoretical and conceptual framework to discuss the role of borders in creating living and working conditions for sex workers within the European border regime. This regime both restricts and enables a structural background for migrant sex work. I argue that sex work scholars should pay closer attention to the heterogeneity of non- citizenship and the effects of different immigration statuses on the working conditions and forms of intimacies migrants create. Borders need to be viewed as institutions that produce social relations. I categorise these relations as precarious intimacies to describe the ways in which intimacy, commerce and borders often intertwine in the lives of migrants engaged in commercial sex work. The article draws upon 18-month ethnographic fieldwork among and interviews with migrant sex workers in Finland.
The chapter was published in "Muokattu elämä : teknotiede, sukupuoli ja materiaalisuus" [Technoscience, Gender and Society] by Sari Irni, Mianna Meskus & Venla Oikkonen (eds.) 2014.
With Jukka Kononen.
See / katso: http://www.karkotetut.com/kirja.html
Kulttuurintutkimus – Cultural Studies –journal, 4/2012, 17–30 (in Finnish).
Artikkeli käsittelee ylirajaisissa heteroseksuaalisissa suhteissa olevien nuorten valkoisten suomalaisnaisten kokemuksia suhteeseensa kohdistuvasta rasismista ja ennakkoluuloista. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan valkoisuuden eri merkityksiä, näiden merkitysten kiinnittymistä sukupuoleen, seksuaalisuuteen ja kansallisuuteen sekä valkoisuuden ”tahriintumista”. Artikkeli nostaa esiin normatiivisen heteroseksuaalisuuden rajojen määrittelyjä Suomessa sekä niiden yhteenkietoutumista kansallisuuden, rodun ja etnisyyden kanssa. Naisten välitilallinen asema tuottaa ainutlaatuisen näkökulman suomalaisen yhteiskunnan rasistisuuteen ja sen näkymättömyyteen valtaosalle valkoisia suomalaisia.
Reports / Raportit by Niina Vuolajärvi
Suomen Naistutkimusseuralle laadittu raportti Ruotsin seksin ostokiellon tutkituista vaikutuksista.
Laatija: Niina Vuolajärvi
Työryhmä: Johanna Kantola, Anna Kontula, Minna Seikkula, Vaula Tuomaala ja Niina Vuolajärvi
Tilaaja: Suomen Naistutkimuksen seura, syyskokous 2013
Valmistumisaika- ja paikka: Syyskuu 2013, Helsinki
Book Reviews by Niina Vuolajärvi
Consultation and scientific expert by Niina Vuolajärvi
With Jukka Könönen
The Parliament of Finland, Employment and Equality Committee, consultation on the Finnish National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings Report 2014.
Den finländska jämställdhetsdiskursen återskapar ofta det könsforskningen kallar “två-könsmodellen”. Men-, jämställdhetspolitik handlar, menar vi, om mera än bara kvinnor och män.
This article examines the meaning of borders – the spaces where immigration policies and restrictions are materially condensed – in the lives of migrant sex workers. I provide a theoretical and conceptual framework to discuss the role of borders in creating living and working conditions for sex workers within the European border regime. This regime both restricts and enables a structural background for migrant sex work. I argue that sex work scholars should pay closer attention to the heterogeneity of non- citizenship and the effects of different immigration statuses on the working conditions and forms of intimacies migrants create. Borders need to be viewed as institutions that produce social relations. I categorise these relations as precarious intimacies to describe the ways in which intimacy, commerce and borders often intertwine in the lives of migrants engaged in commercial sex work. The article draws upon 18-month ethnographic fieldwork among and interviews with migrant sex workers in Finland.
The chapter was published in "Muokattu elämä : teknotiede, sukupuoli ja materiaalisuus" [Technoscience, Gender and Society] by Sari Irni, Mianna Meskus & Venla Oikkonen (eds.) 2014.
With Jukka Kononen.
See / katso: http://www.karkotetut.com/kirja.html
Kulttuurintutkimus – Cultural Studies –journal, 4/2012, 17–30 (in Finnish).
Artikkeli käsittelee ylirajaisissa heteroseksuaalisissa suhteissa olevien nuorten valkoisten suomalaisnaisten kokemuksia suhteeseensa kohdistuvasta rasismista ja ennakkoluuloista. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan valkoisuuden eri merkityksiä, näiden merkitysten kiinnittymistä sukupuoleen, seksuaalisuuteen ja kansallisuuteen sekä valkoisuuden ”tahriintumista”. Artikkeli nostaa esiin normatiivisen heteroseksuaalisuuden rajojen määrittelyjä Suomessa sekä niiden yhteenkietoutumista kansallisuuden, rodun ja etnisyyden kanssa. Naisten välitilallinen asema tuottaa ainutlaatuisen näkökulman suomalaisen yhteiskunnan rasistisuuteen ja sen näkymättömyyteen valtaosalle valkoisia suomalaisia.
Suomen Naistutkimusseuralle laadittu raportti Ruotsin seksin ostokiellon tutkituista vaikutuksista.
Laatija: Niina Vuolajärvi
Työryhmä: Johanna Kantola, Anna Kontula, Minna Seikkula, Vaula Tuomaala ja Niina Vuolajärvi
Tilaaja: Suomen Naistutkimuksen seura, syyskokous 2013
Valmistumisaika- ja paikka: Syyskuu 2013, Helsinki
With Jukka Könönen
The Parliament of Finland, Employment and Equality Committee, consultation on the Finnish National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings Report 2014.
Consultation on the Penal code Chapter 20 - 8 §: Exploitation of a person subjected to sex trade, September 2014