Clare Burgess
Research Topic
'Her good service': A Comparative Study of Sexual Labour in Sixteenth Century Lyon, Seville and Mexico City'
My doctoral project is a comparative study of sexual labour in sixteenth century (c.1480-1630) Lyon, Seville and Mexico City, using labour as a lens to analyse the changing conditions of gendered labour in the sixteenth century (broadly construed), on both sides of the Atlantic. It is an examination of the conditions and perceptions of sexual labour, which I consider a form of gendered labour, comparable to domestic or reproductive labour. I explore the impact of legality, freedom, race and social class on the practice of sex work and compare the experiences of colonial and metropolitan sex workers, seeking also to understand how each context influenced the other. This project is transatlantic and builds on the dialogic nature of colonial societies to examine how metropole and colony differed, how they were similar, and then to put this in further conversation with another European case.
Race is a key thread of my thesis, and I build on the work of scholars such as Marisa Fuentes to consider the experiences of Indigenous and Black women, both enslaved and free. Similarly, although it is not the central lens of my thesis, I devote consideration to queerness and the experiences of men and boys involved in sexual labour. My thesis problematises the idea of the reified ‘archive’ and considers what and who is allowed to enter the record, and how this impacts our study of the past.
Publications
“‘These unfortunate women’: Sex Workers’ Responses to Violence in Late Sixteenth-Century Seville” in Histories of Sex Work Around the World (Routledge, 2024).
“Colonial Law and the Indigenous Women of the Spanish Americas: Strategies, Barriers and Shifting Norms”, Women's History Today, Winter Edition, 2022.
Select Conference Papers
"‘As If They Were Man and Wife’: Transactional Sex and Gendered Labour in Early Modern Seville and Mexico City", Early Modern World Seminar University of Oxford, October 2024
"Cohabitation, Prostitution and Procuring: Sex Work as Gendered Labour in Early Modern Seville and Mexico City", Women’s Studies Group, March 2024
"Asking Historians: Reddit, Social Media and Public History", E-Commemoration Conference by Koerber Stiftung, September 2023
"Reading Rape: Questions of Consent in Early Modern Lyon and Seville", Do No Harm Conference on Sexual Violence, May 2023
"Encountering Sex for Sale: A Topographical Approach to Understanding Sex Work in Sixteenth-Century Lyon", Sixteenth Century Society Conference/Social History Conference/Society for Early Modern French Studies, 2022
'Mapping Sex: Understanding Geographies of Sex Work in Early Modern Lyon", Medieval and Early Modern Festival, July 2022
"Encountering Sex for Sale: Mapping Sex Work in Early Modern France", Society for the Study of French History, April 2022
About
I completed an undergraduate degree in History at the University of York (2017-2020) where I was a Laidlaw Research Scholar, before reading Early Modern History at University College, Oxford in 2020-2021. During my doctorate I have been the recipient of numerous awards, including the De Osma Scholarship from the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan in Madrid and a History Faculty Designated Studentship. In 2023-2024 I was the Researcher in Residence at Cheney School, Oxford. I am also a Graduate Outreach Tutor for the Faculty of History and a Graduate Mentor for Exeter College.
Supervisor: Professor Lyndal Roper and Associate Professor Giuseppe Marcocci
