This panel draws together themes of witchcraft, labour and capital, by engaging with the concept of the witch and occult practitioner as labourer. Given COVID-19’s widespread economic devastation, disproportionately affecting those residing at the sociopolitical margins, there is growing imperative to recognize and support marginal labour practices like witchcraft and the occult.
Kassandra Sparks’ “Professional Dominatrix Sessions as Ritual Sites of Feminized Labor” is a participant-observation ethnography of Professional Dominatrixes in New York City, exploring sessions as ritual sites of feminized labour. Sparks considers Pro-Dommes-as-witches as ironically reworking logics of capitalism and gender through the wage/gift.
Grace Kredell’s "Witch Workers of the World, Unite: Organizing the Occult(ed)" responds to the perception of witch workers as unorganizable. Kredell argues that the witch's complex historical legacy sheds light on conditions affecting witch workers including an absence of unions and the legal 'greyness' of the industry which make practitioners vulnerable to persecution and exploitation.
Felicia Lang’s "Fostering Witchcraft and Spirituality through Small Business Practices during Covid-19" explores the upsurge of wellness culture and spirituality in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, analyzing how spiritual business owners-as-small business owners have survived COVID-19 amidst unprecedented small business closures.
Please Note: This event will not be recorded
This panel draws together themes of witchcraft, labour and capital, by engaging with the concept of the witch and occult practitioner as labourer. Given COVID-19’s widespread economic devastation, disproportionately affecting those residing at the sociopolitical margins, there is growing imperative to recognize and support marginal labour practices like witchcraft and the occult.
Kassandra Sparks’ “Professional Dominatrix Sessions as Ritual Sites of Feminized Labor” is a participant-observation ethnography of Professional Dominatrixes in New York City, exploring sessions as ritual sites of feminized labour. Sparks considers Pro-Dommes-as-witches as ironically reworking logics of capitalism and gender through the wage/gift.
Grace Kredell’s "Witch Workers of the World, Unite: Organizing the Occult(ed)" responds to the perception of witch workers as unorganizable. Kredell argues that the witch's complex historical legacy sheds light on conditions affecting witch workers including an absence of unions and the legal 'greyness' of the industry which make practitioners vulnerable to persecution and exploitation.
Felicia Lang’s "Fostering Witchcraft and Spirituality through Small Business Practices during Covid-19" explores the upsurge of wellness culture and spirituality in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, analyzing how spiritual business owners-as-small business owners have survived COVID-19 amidst unprecedented small business closures.
Please Note: This event will not be recorded