The Prague Branch of the German Historical Institute Warsaw (part of the Max Weber Foundation), together with Collegium Carolinum and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO), in cooperation with the Czech Academy of Sciences through the joint Czech-German Research and Mediation Platform (GWZOPragueFLÚ) at its Institute of Philosophy, invites you to a public lecture hosted by the Faculty of Arts, Charles University.The lecture is part of the Prague Histories Forum, a public lecture series bringing international scholars into dialogue with students, researchers, and the wider public. The winter semester 2026/27 programme explores Gender & Queer in East Central Europe.
NARRATING THE SEX TRADE: STORIES, MIGRATION, AND NEW MATERIALIST PERSPECTIVES
Tracie L. Wilson (Rachel Carson Centre, Munich / Technical University Chemnitz)
How did stories about the sex trade circulate through a multilingual borderland, and how did they shape understandings of migration, sexuality, and regulation?
Focusing on Lviv and eastern Galicia at the turn of the twentieth century, Tracie L. Wilson examines the connections between rumours, folk narratives, newspaper reports, police accounts, and literary representations. Bringing folklore studies into dialogue with new materialist approaches, the lecture treats stories as active elements in the production and negotiation of social relations. It develops the concept of narrative agency to explore how stories that move between people, places, media, and institutions influence responses to prostitution, mobility, and policing.
Tracie L. Wilson holds a PhD from Indiana University Bloomington and currently teaches at the Technical University of Chemnitz. She has held positions at institutions including Leipzig University and the Rachel Carson Centre. Her recent publications include Narrating the Sex Trade (2026), Emotions of Contested Migrations (2024), and One Haunted River (2025).
Tuesday, 1 December 2026 | 15:50–17:20 CET
Špork Palace, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
Hybernská 3, Prague 1 | Room 303, attic floor
The lecture will be held in English. Students, researchers, and members of the public are welcome to attend in person or online.
For information on online participation, please visit the Prague Histories Forum webpage: https://www.dhi.waw.pl/en/news/detail/prague-histories-forum-gender-and-queer-history-in-east-central-europe/
Event venue
Hybernská 1036/3, 110 00 Praha, Česko, Hybernská 1036/3, 110 00 Praha, Česko, Prague, Czech Republic
Tickets
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