Professor Hanser will explore some of the links between the body, gender, age—middle-age especially—and labor in contemporary urban China. Through discussion of ethnographic data she has collected over the years, she will discuss how middle-aged women experience their bodies and how they are regarded in the labor market. Tying these two elements together should generate a better understanding of gender, age, value, and social (in)visibility.
Amy Hanser currently teaches at the University of British Columbia, where she is an associate professor of sociology. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Hanser’s research spans the topics of work, consumption, markets, and culture. She is the author of Service Encounters (2008), a study of service work in contemporary China, in addition to numerous articles and book chapters on this topic. Her current research explores the consumption of foreign or imported goods in both North America and China, and a new project will examine how cultural conceptions of streets and sidewalks influence policies and attitudes towards street and food vending in North America and China.