Course Catalogue

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The popular description of prostitution as the 'world's oldest profession' suggests sex work to be unchanging, a constant throughout history. This course will dispute that description by considering the historical situatedness of sex work and sex work policy. Through primary sources and case studies, it will explore social, cultural, legal and political responses to prostitution implemented in Europe over the course of the twentieth century, from state regulation and bourgeois reformers to the emergence of sex workers' rights movements.

1 x 1hr lecture and 1 x 1hr seminar weekly over 10 weeks as scheduled in My Campus. This is one of the Honours options in History and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into History, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes.

None

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The standard assessments for this course are:

■ Source Analysis (1,200 words) 40%

■ Research Essay (2,500 words) 60%

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ There is no alternative to the assessments, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions)

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.

This course aims to:

■ introduce key developments in the regulation and practice of commercial sex in the twentieth century

■ facilitate the use of primary source analysis to explore case studies from across twentieth-century Europe, where students will consult and contrast sources produced as part of regulation and activism

■ connect sex work history with broader histories - women and gender history, labour history, history of medicine, policing and crime

■ relate twentieth-century discussions on the management of commercial sex to present-day discussions

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. evaluate key developments in modern sex work history

2. critically analyse primary sources and relate them to relevant literature to produce convincing arguments

3. express historical arguments in clear prose providing accurate, verifiable and appropriate evidence