SELECTED ARTICLES
“Caste Capitalism and Queer Theory: Beyond Identity Politics in India.” South Atlantic Quarterly, 123(1): 105-128, 2024.
“Agriculture, rivers and gender: Thinking with ‘caste capitalism’, migrant labour and food production in the Capitalocene.” Agenda: Empowering women for gender equity, 37(1): 1-7. 2023
“Impossible Migrants: The Debate on Sex Work and the Crisis of Global Migration.” South Atlantic Quarterly, 120(3): 515-532. 2021.
“Queering Critiques of Neoliberalism in India: Urbanism and Inequality in the Era of Transnational “LGBTQ” Rights.” Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 47(3): 635-651. 2015.
“Brothels and Big Screen Rescues: Producing the Idea of ‘Prostitution in India’ Through Documentary Film.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 15(4): 549-566. 2013.
“Sex Work and Queer Politics in Three Acts.” The Scholar and Feminist Online, Issue 10.1-10.2. Fall 2011/Spring 2012. Republished in Danish, “Sexarbejde og queerpolitik i tre akter.” Modkraft, 16:17. 2012.
“Knowing The Unknowns: The Artwork of Chitra Ganesh.” (Art Essay).” Feminist Studies, 37(1): 111-126. 2011.
“Sexuality and ‘The Left’: Thoughts on Intersections and Visceral Others.” The Scholar and Feminist Online, 7(3): Summer. 2009.
“South Asian Border Crossings, Migration and Sex Work.” Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of the National Sexuality Resource Center, 5(4): 19–30. 2008.
“Distinguishing Poverty and Trafficking: Lessons from Field Research in Mumbai.” Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, 9(1): 441-454. 2007.
“Producing the Spectacle of Kamathipura: The Politics of Red Light Visibility in Mumbai.” Cultural Dynamics, 18(3): 269-292. 2006.
“Born Into Saving Brothel Children,” Rethinking Marxism: A Journal of Economics, Culture & Society, 17(4): 521-523
“Prostitution, Sex Work, and Violence: Discursive and Political Contexts for Five Texts on Paid Sex, 1987-2001.” Gender and History, 16(3): 794-812. 2004.
“Sex Work in the Global Economy.” New Labor Forum, 12(1): 74-81. 2003.
With Kukké S. “Reflections on Queer South Asian Progressive Activism in the U.S.” Amerasia Journal, 25(3): 129-137. 1999/2000.
BOOK CHAPTERS
“Borders and Boundaries: Thinking Migration, Sexuality, and Precarity in a Neoliberal Age,” co-authored with Sine Plambech, Mark Padilla, and Sealing Cheng, in Paradoxes of Neoliberalism: Sex, Gender and Possibilities for Justice. Edited by Elizabeth Bernstein and Janet Jacobsen, New York: Routledge, 2022.
“Sex Work, Sex for Work, and the Spaces Between,” Interview in Women in the Worlds of Labour: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Perspectives. Edited by Mary John and Meena Gopal, New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2020.
“Sex Work in Asia,” in The Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History, New York: Routledge, 2018. [2020 Dartmouth Medal Winner].
“Caste, Capital and the Street: Migrant Women Workers Negotiating Survival in Mumbai,” in Gender, Caste and the Imagination of Equality. Edited by Anupama Rao. New Delhi: Women Unlimited Press. Pp. 196-212. 2018.
“Sex and Work: Understanding Sexual Commerce in an Era of ‘Globalisation,” in The Routledge Handbook of Human Trafficking. Edited by Ryszard Piotriwicz, Connie Rijken, and Baerbel Heide Uhl. Abingdon, UK and New York: Routledge. Pp. 319-327. 2017.
“Gender, Politics and the State: South Asia,” in The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies. Edited by Nancy Naples. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell Press. Pp. 1-4. 2016.
“Materialising Sexuality, Poverty and the Law” in Gender, Sexuality and Social Justice: What’s Law Got to Do with It? Edited by Kay Lalor, Elizabeth Mills, Arturo Sánchez García, and Polly Haste. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies. Pp. 72-73. 2016.
“True Sex and the Law: Prostitution, Sodomy and the Politics of Sexual Minoritization in India,” in Sexuality Studies Reader. Edited by Sanjay Srivastava. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press. Pp. 161-183. 2013.
“Sex Workers’ Rights and Women’s Movements in India: A Very Brief Genealogy,” in New South Asian Feminisms: Paradoxes and Possibilities. Edited by Srila Roy. New York: Zed Press. Pp. 27-43. 2012.
“Fear, Sexuality, and The Future: Thinking Sex (Panic), Monstrosity, and Prostitution,” in SARAI Reader 08: Fear. New Delhi: Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). Pp. 142-148. 2008.
“International Prostitution Policy and Sex Workers’ Rights in India,” in Non-Governmental Politics. Edited by Michael Feher, Gaëlle Krikorian, and Yates McKee. New York: Zone Books. 2007. Pp. 261-267.
“Solicitation, Migration and Day Wage Labour: Gender, Sexuality and Negotiating Work in the City.” Poverty, Gender and Migration. Edited by Sadhna Arya and Anupama Roy. Volume 2, Women and Migration in Asia Series, New Delhi: Sage Publications. 2006. Pp. 236-250.
OCCASIONAL PUBLICATIONS
“Biennale By the Sea.” The Caravan: A Journal of Politics and Culture, 1 March. 2015.
“From HIV to trafficking: Shifting Frames for Sex Work in India.” (excerpted from Chapter 1, Street Corner Secrets: Sex, Work and Migration in the City of Mumbai, Durham: Duke University Press, 2014), Open Democracy: Beyond Trafficking and Slavery (blog), 26 January. 2015.
“From the Land of What Might Have Been.” Special Issue on Politics in the South Asian Diaspora, Himal South Asian Magazine, 27(4): 104-117. 2014.
“Gloria Steinem vs. Prostitution in India.” Huffington Post, 28 November. 2014.
“Protesting Modi at Madison Square Garden.” Al Jazeera America, 7 October. 2014.
“Private View: As museums increasingly move into commercial spaces, new tensions emerge in artists’ alternative histories.” The Caravan: A Journal of Politics and Culture, 1 October. 2014.
“Queering Diplomacy: Shifts in US Foreign Policy Reflect the Globalisation of LGBT Politics.” The Caravan: A Journal of Politics and Culture, 1 May. 2014.
“Why We’re Not Losing: Decoding Indian Sexuality Politics in an Election Year.” SAMAR: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection. Vol. 42. 2014.
“The Challenge of New Delhi, Steubenville, and Amherst.” Pioneer Wired Magazine, 22-23, March. 2013.
“Reflections on the spatial politics of sex work in documentary film.” Seminar 636: 72-74. 2012.
“What Kamathipura (Mumbai’s Largest Red Light District) Means Today.” Special Issue on Sex Work, Himal South Asian Magazine, 23(8): 26-30. 2010.
“Sex Work and Ethnography.” Anthropology News, 51(2): 35-36. 2010.
“Making Sense of the Second Generation.” Economic and Political Weekly, 44(30): 14-17. 2009.
“A Briefing of Two Meetings on Human Trafficking.” Sexuality Policy Watch, Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association, 23 January. 2009.
“The City’s Red Lights: Mumbai’s Boom Town of Migrant Laborers.” $pread Magazine, 4(3): 40-43. 2008.
“Life at Mumbai’s Nakas.” Infochange Agenda: News and Analysis on Social Justice and Development Issues in India, July. 2008.
“Hijras, a Police Crusade and an Action.” SAMAR: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection. 30. 2008.
“Mississippi Mutiny Challenges Anti-Trafficking Law.” SAMAR: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection. 29. 2008.
“The World Social Forum Revisited, or Why We Should Care about the WSF.” SAMAR: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection. Vol. 17. 2004.
“Out and Out Radical: Sexuality and the South Asian Progressivism in the US.” SAMAR: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection, Vol. 14. 2001.
“A Report-back from the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR).” The Public Eye (from Political Research Associates).15(3):19-21. 2001.