The Team
Research Assistants and Peer Researchers
Dr. Giulia Garofalo Geymonat
is a researcher and activist in the fields of labour, gender, sexuality and disabilities. She has conducted extensive research on intimate labour and is a researcher and activist in the fields of labour, gender, sexuality and disabilities. She has conducted extensive research on intimate labour and social movements, especially in relation to issues of sex work, domestic work, migration, trafficking, disabilities. She co-edited the online book Sex Workers Speak. Who Listens? (with PG Macioti) and the online special issue Exploitation and Its Opposite. Researching the Quality of Working Life in the Sex Industries. She also published the books Vendere e comprare sesso (Italian) and Köpa och sälja sex (Swedish).
Yigit Aydinalp
is a long term advocate for the rights of sexual minorities in particular LGBTQI people and sex workers, both in Turkey and United Kingdom. He is a co-founder of Red Umbrella Sexual Health and human Rights Association (Turkey) and Umbrella Lane (Scotland), Yigit has also been involved in academic research on the impact of policing and criminalisation of sex workers in Glasgow. He currently works as a Finance and Administration Officer at the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE)
Antonia Filipova
is a 3rd year student in social work at the Catholic University of Applied Social Sciences in Berlin. Originally from Bulgaria, Antonia has worked as intercultural mediator and translator with sex workers for Hydra e.V. for over 4 years and completed a number of trainings on sex work, sexualities and anti-racism, by Deutsche Aidshifle, Hydra e.V., Gladt e.V. and Trans*sexworks in Berlin, Germany.
Dr. PG Macioti
is a researcher and activist in the field of citizenship, migration, language and sex work. P.G. regularly intervenes in critical academic and activist seminars and debates about sex work and conducts independent research on stigma. She co-edited Sex Workers Speak. Who Listens? (with Giulia Garofalo Geymonat) and co-authored a briefing paper on ‘Sex Work and Mental Health’ (with Pippa Grenfell and Dr Lucy Platt). In June 2017, PG joined the international team of Nick Mai's ERC Project SEXHUM as Postdoctoral researcher in Sydney, Australia.
Aura Cadeddu
graduated with a degree in social work from the University of Bologna after working 8 years as a peer operator in the field of harm reduction for MIT, (Trans Identity Movement) working on the health, well-being and dignity of trans and cis sex workers. She collaborates with “Avvocato di Strada” (NGO lawyers) who protect the rights of migrants and homelesses people.)
Liad Hussein Kantorowicz
is an activist, a performance artist, and an advocate for sex workers' rights. she's a former sex worker, having worked extensively in North America, Europe and West Asia. Liad is a co-founder and the coordinator of The Peer Projekt bei Hydra, a sex workers'-led initiative to promote better work practices, empowerment and anti-stigma work among Berlin's diverse sex workers. Performatively, her research focuses on embodying and giving voice to subjects seen as sexual or political deviants, and by extension this includes sex workers, often at the intersection of feminism, queer politics, and minoritarian/migrational identities. examples of these can be seen in her performances 'Watch Me Work' (2012), 'Terrorist Superstars' (2016), 'A Bit of Peace' (2017) and her short film NO DEMOCRACY HERE (2018).
Prof. Nicola Mai
was the Principal Investigator of a two year 'Migrant Workers in the Sex UK Sex Industry' ESRC-funded project which produced 100 qualitative interviews with women, men and transgender people and found that only a minority felt that they were trafficked. He also delivered several research projects and evaluations on the relationship between migration and the exploitation of vulnerable migrant groups for international organisations and local authorities including the IOM, Save the Children and the London Borough of Haringey. Nick is currently the Principal Investigator of the ERC Project SEXHUM: migration, sex work and trafficking (2016-2020).
Ophelia Eglentyn
is a migrant sex worker who lives and works internationally. She is a member and co-founder of several sex workers’ rights organisations around the world as well as informal support- and community groups irl and online. She is strong believer in sex workers’ ability to organise and run their own projects. Despite enjoying activism and research work she is first and formost a sex worker.
Olga Wennergren
is a Swedish queer activist and educator based in Berlin. Olga has many years’ experience of advocacy, community building and peer education, especially focusing on LGBTQI, women’s and sex workers’ rights.
The SWMH team is composed of three academic researchers - Dr. Giulia Garofalo Geymonat – Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Prof. Nicola Mai – Kingston University, and Dr. PG Macioti– Kingston University - working as a research team including research assistants and peer researchers- meaning people who have themselves direct experience in the sex industry.