My presentation, "Mobile Bodies: Practicing Cell Phone-Based Transactional Sex in Gujarat, India," from the Sexuality Conference in Dublin (March 19-20, 2010). The research for this project was conducted as part of my Anthropology honors thesis as an undergraduate at Stanford.

1. Mobile Bodies Practicing Cell Phone-Based Transactional Sex in Gujarat, India Mitali Thakor Self, Selves, & Sexualities Conference Dublin, Ireland March 20, 2010

3. Introduction How do cell phones offer new ways of conceptualizing ‘transactional sex’ distinct from current definitions of sex work dictated by the HIV/AIDS and sex trafficking discourse? What role do cell phones play in the day-to-day lived experiences of women doing transactional sex in a ‘modern’ Indian state? Methods Results Conclusions Introduction

4. Introduction Before cell phones, I used to have to wait to pick up customers on the street corner by the train station. It was risky, because the police could easily catch you and all the people passing by would see you there every few days and figure out who you were. Now my life is much easier—I give customers my cell number, they ring me up when they want to meet, and then they come to my house or we meet at a hotel… Nobody’s going to bother a woman talking on her phone in public. There’s nothing wrong with that. “ ” -- Radha, 28 year-old woman, Baroda Methods Results Conclusions Introduction

7. Last day at Vikas Jyot (Baroda)

10. Sex work Overwhelmingly defined by dual discourses: Methods Results Conclusions Introduction Spectacle of Trafficking Specter of AIDS &

11. Brothel-based sex work in Kolkata, India

12. Conflating disease and state control (Kolkata AIDS rally)

13. Transactional Sex Diversity of practices & purposes Moving away from victimizing discourses

15. Mobility

18. Thank you!