The University of Hong Kong 
Dr Julie Ham
Assistant Professor
jham@hku.hk
+852 3917 2057
Biography
Julie Ham’s research is grounded in ongoing engagement with community-based organizations and international networks working for migrant rights, sex worker rights and social change. She has published on domestic work, sex work, anti-trafficking, gender and migration, feminist participatory action research, and activist efforts by trafficking survivors, sex workers and domestic workers. Prior to joining the Department of Sociology, Julie worked with the Border Crossing Observatory (Monash University), the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) and with community-based research projects and organizations in Canada, working with sex workers, immigrant and refugee communities, women substance users, low-income urban communities, and anti-violence organisations.
Her recent research explores knowledge production and cultural production by migrants in Hong Kong through participatory and visual methodologies. For more information, see Mobile Methodologies and Migrant Knowledges.
Courses taught
SOCI2011 (Unavailable this year) Gender and crime
SOCI4095 (1st & 2nd semester) Capstone project in sociology
SOCI4096 (1st & 2nd semester) Capstone project in criminology
SOCI4098 (1st & 2nd semester) Capstone project in media and cultural studies
SOCI7002 (1st semester) Methods of research for criminology
SOCI8013 (2nd semester) Gender, crime and social control
Globalization and migration
Education
PhD
Monash University (Melbourne, Australia)
MSW
University of Toronto
BSW
University of Victoria
BA Psychology
University of British Columbia
Research interests
Gender and migration
Sex work
Trafficking
Intersectionality
Domestic work
Civil society
Social justice
Current research
POETRY – Poly-Occular Engagement and Transnational Research Yearnings: Innovations in Research Across Community-Academic Divides (Co-Principal Investigator). New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF), Canada Research Coordinating Committee (CRCC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), 2022-2023.
Informal creative economies and domestic workers’ encounters with the good, the bad and the law in Hong Kong (Principal Investigator). Faculty of Social Sciences Research Cluster Seed Funding, 2019-2021.
The lives of migrant remittances: An Asian comparative study (Collaborator). Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC, Canada), 2017-2021.
Visualizing the voices of women migrant workers, with Vivian Wenli Lin. Interdisciplinary Knowledge Exchange (KE) Project Fund, 2016-2017.
Globalized labour knowledges between the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East (Principal Investigator). Seed Funding, 2016-2018.
Non-Chinese sex workers in Hong Kong and emerging sex work spaces (Principal Investigator). General Research Fund/Early Career Scheme, 2016-2019.
Honours and recognitions
British Journal of Criminology Radzinowicz Memorial Prize 2014 for ‘Hot pants at the border: Sorting sex work from trafficking’, British Journal of Criminology, 54(1): 2-19.
Selected publications
Books:
Ham, J. (2017). Sex work, Immigration and Social Difference. London: Routledge.
Pickering, S. & Ham, J. (2015). The Routledge Handbook on Crime and International Migration. London: Routledge.
Journal articles:
Gheorghiu, I. & Ham, J. (2022). Biographical work and the production of credibility in sex work interviews. The British Journal of Criminology, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azac003
Ham, J. & Ceradoy, A. (2021). “God blessed me with employers who don’t starve their helpers”: Food insecurity and dehumanization in domestic work. Gender, Work & Organization, https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12643
Ham, J. & Gheorghiu, I. (2020). Scripting pragmatic intimacies in sex work, migration and intimate-material exchanges. Culture, Health & Sexuality, https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2020.1785011
Ham, J. & Sunuwar, M. (2020). Experiments in enchantment: Domestic workers, upcycling and social change. Emotion, Space and Society, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2020.100715
Ham, J. (2020). Rates, roses and donations: Naming your price in sex work. Sociology, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038038520906773
Lin, V.W., Ham, J., Gu, G., Sunuwar, M., Luo, C. & Gil-Besada, L. (2019). Reflections through the lens: Participatory video with migrant domestic workers, asylum seekers and ethnic minorities. Emotion, Space and Society, https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ZwAC6F9IFN9ri
Ham, J. (2018). Using difference in intersectional research with im/migrant and racialized sex workers. Theoretical Criminology, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1362480618819807
Vecchio, F. & Ham, J. (2018). From subsistence to resistance: Asylum-seekers and the other ‘Occupy’ in Hong Kong. Critical Social Policy, 38(3): 201-221.
Ham, J. & Gilmour, F. (2017). ‘We all have one’: Exit plans as a professional strategy in sex work. Work, Employment & Society, 31(5), 748-763
Ham, J., Jung, K. & Jang, H. (2016)Silence, mobility and ‘national values’: South Korean sex workers in Australia. Sexualities, 19(4): 432-448.
Clancey, A., Khushrushahi, N. & Ham, J. (2014). Do evidence-based approaches alienate Canadian anti-trafficking funders? Anti-Trafficking Review, 3, 87-108.
Ham, J. & Gerard, A. (2014). Strategic in/visibility: Does agency make sex workers invisible? Criminology and Criminal Justice, 14(3): 298-313.
Pickering, S. & Ham, J. (2014). Hot pants at the border: Sorting sex work from trafficking. British Journal of Criminology, 54(1): 2-19.
Ham, J., Segrave, M. & Pickering, S. (2013). In the eyes of the beholder: Gender and suspect travelers at the border and within the nation. Anti-Trafficking Review, 2: 51-56.
Book chapters:
Ham, J. (2020). Anti-trafficking in Southeast Asia. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.013.612
Mackenzie, K. & Ham, J. (2019). SWAN Vancouver: Supporting immigrant and migrant women in the sex industry. In A. Lebovitch & S. Ferris (Eds.), Sex Work Activism in Canada: Speaking Out, Standing Up (pp. 104-117). Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing.
Ham, J. (2014). Intuiting illegality in sex work. In S. Pickering & J. Ham (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook on Crime and International Migration (pp. 206-219). London: Routledge.
Ham, J. & Dewar, F. (2014). Shifting public anti-trafficking discourses through arts and media. In S. Yea (Ed.) Human Trafficking in Asia: Forcing Issues (pp. 185-199).Abingdon: Routledge.
Ham, J. for GAATW. (2013). Trafficking and gender. In D.M. Figart & T.L. Warnecke (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life (pp. 542-558).Northhampton: Edward Elgar.
Other:
Ham, J. for Zi Teng and SWAN Vancouver. (2015). Chinese Sex Workers in Toronto & Vancouver. Vancouver: SWAN.
Ham, J. for GAATW. (2011). Beyond ‘Supply and Demand’ Catchphrases: Assessing the Uses and Limitations of Demand-Based Approaches in Anti-Trafficking. Bangkok: Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women.
Ham, J. for GAATW. (2011). What’s the Cost of a Rumour? A guide to sorting out the myths and the facts about sporting events and trafficking. Bangkok: Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women.
Ham, J. for GAATW. (2010). Beyond Borders: Exploring Links Between Trafficking and Gender (GAATW Working Paper Series). Bangkok: Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women.
Ham, J. for GAATW. (2007). Respect and Relevance: Supporting Self-Organising As A Strategy for Empowerment and Social Change. Bangkok: Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women.