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Outputs (27)

Playgrounds of Resistance: A Patchwork Ethnography of Sex Workers’ Sociopolitical Collectivisation in South & West India (2025)
Thesis
Krishnakumar, J. Playgrounds of Resistance: A Patchwork Ethnography of Sex Workers’ Sociopolitical Collectivisation in South & West India. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

Sex workers in India have long battled singular, stereotypical representations of themselves as victim-criminals, or, as ‘key populations’ in India’s HIV/AIDS Targeted Intervention programmes since the late 1980s through the 1990s. This thesis engage... Read More about Playgrounds of Resistance: A Patchwork Ethnography of Sex Workers’ Sociopolitical Collectivisation in South & West India.

Robots in the Wild: An Ethnography of Robot-Human Interactions outside the Laboratory (2023)
Preprint / Working Paper
Gygi, F. (2023). Robots in the Wild: An Ethnography of Robot-Human Interactions outside the Laboratory. Aubervilliers

This exploratory research project looks at how robots interact with the French public in the ‘wild’; that is, outside of the controlled environment of the laboratory or the psychological experiment. The aim was to understand concrete human-robot inte... Read More about Robots in the Wild: An Ethnography of Robot-Human Interactions outside the Laboratory.

The Afterlives of Dolls: On the Productive Death of Terminal Commodities (2023)
Journal Article
Gygi, F. (2023). The Afterlives of Dolls: On the Productive Death of Terminal Commodities. Ars orientalis, 52, 197-221. https://doi.org/10.3998/ars.3993

Can dolls die? This paper examines memorial services for dolls (ningyō kuyō) in Japan as conduits to disposal. Dolls, once bought, are widely understood to be terminal commodities: they can only be passed down to a narrow group of relatives and often... Read More about The Afterlives of Dolls: On the Productive Death of Terminal Commodities.

High fun: An ethnography of HIV risk and stigma among gay and bisexual men in urban India (2023)
Thesis
Rijneveld, C. J. High fun: An ethnography of HIV risk and stigma among gay and bisexual men in urban India. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

This thesis is an ethnography of HIV risk and stigma among gay and bisexual men in urban India, a demographic that is underrepresented in HIV/Aids research. It explores the effects of the biomedicalization of the HIV/Aids epidemic over the past decad... Read More about High fun: An ethnography of HIV risk and stigma among gay and bisexual men in urban India.

Embrace me as I am: Japanese Pornography for Women and the Fan Community surrounding Male Porn Stars (2023)
Thesis
Kodaka, M. Embrace me as I am: Japanese Pornography for Women and the Fan Community surrounding Male Porn Stars. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

This exploratory research looks at female fans of male porn actors in Jôsei-muke Adult Videos (AV) in Japan. Jôsei-muke is a pornographic genre aimed at heterosexual women that features good-looking male porn actors called eromen and lovemen. This ne... Read More about Embrace me as I am: Japanese Pornography for Women and the Fan Community surrounding Male Porn Stars.

Falling in and out of love with stuff: Affective affordance and horizontal transcendence in styles of decluttering in Japan (2022)
Journal Article
Gygi, F. (2022). Falling in and out of love with stuff: Affective affordance and horizontal transcendence in styles of decluttering in Japan. Japanese Studies, 42(2), 195-212. https://doi.org/10.1080/10371397.2022.2108777

The last decade has seen the rise of Japanese methods of decluttering, adding everyday stuff to the increasing number of things that the modern subject must manage to gain a sense of wellbeing. This article examines Danshari by Yamashita Hideko and t... Read More about Falling in and out of love with stuff: Affective affordance and horizontal transcendence in styles of decluttering in Japan.