Guest seminar was conducted on the 10th of December 2025 by Radhika Hettiarachchi at PHARE, Université Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne on
Good Work: The Moral Dilemma of Commercial Sex
Abstract: Based on the women’s histories of sex work project, this discussion will reflect on how women are balancing respectability, income, care responsibilities, and the demands of labour, while re-defining what ‘good work’ means to them. We hope this conversation will invite us to rethink the value placed on women’s labour and to question the systems that determine whose work is seen, supported, or made invisible. Using the method of life-history documentation, this project involves women from across Sri Lanka who worked as sex workers throughout and after the Sri Lankan civil war, whose narratives were collaboratively documented between 2021-2023.
This is the first in a series of events organised as part of an ongoing research collaboration between Radhika Hettiarachchi (research fellow at ICES – International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo Sri Lanka, independent consultant specialising in history, “peace-building” and justice) and Nadeera Rajapakse (PHARE, Université Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, specialising in the history of economic thought on women’s work, value, the informal sector and development)
Related publication:
When the Devil Drums, we Dance: Sex Work and Sexual Violence in Wartime Sri Lanka
Sexual violence on sex workers in wartime hashtagSriLanka reinforces the structural and systemic violence that enables the abuse of women’s bodies, beyond sex worker communities and beyond the war. Radhika Hettiarachchi draws from the Women’s Histories of Sex Work archive to spotlight the experiences of sex workers in wartime Sri Lanka and underscore the need to listen to their stories, build allyships, and decriminalise sex work in Sri Lanka.
https://polity.lk/radhika-hettiarachchi-sex-work-and-sexual-violence-in-wartime-sri-lanka/
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
NR (7 mars 2026). Research Collaboration Radhika Hettiarachchi (ICES, Colombo) – PHARE, Université Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne. SRI LANKA & DIASPORAS. Consulté le 22 avril 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/15tvi