Siobhán Hearne, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Durham University

Siobhán Hearne is a historian of gender and sexuality in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. She is currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University. She received her PhD from the University of Nottingham in 2017, and has since completed postdoctoral research in Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. Her research has appeared in the journals Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Social History, Revolutionary Russia and The Journal of Social History(forthcoming).

Shortlisted, RHS Gladstone Book Prize, Royal Historical Society

"Hearne challenges the traditional narrative with fascinating stories she sampled in an astonishing number of regional and central archives. One might have thought the history of prostitution and its regulation in Imperial Russia already had been written, but Hearne offers a new interpretation, introduces new voices, and raises new questions, forcing us to think anew about prostitution and sex work, and about what they can tell us about Imperial Russia. With this book we enter a new phase of the historiographical debate. Hopefully, the next book about prostitution in late Imperial Russia is not too long in coming. When and if it appears, it will have learned a great deal from Hearne's equally provocative and productive approach" -- Alexandra Oberländer, Russian Review

" Policing Prostitution presents a social history of the commercial sex industry not only from the bottom up, but from the inside out. It is a superb book which will have a wide appeal, and will be of particular interest to historians of the late Russian Empire, labour and urban historians, and historians of sexuality more broadly" -- Sasha Rasmussen, Cultural and Social History

"By centring women's experience and the lived realities of those who encountered regulation, Hearne offers powerful evidence of the weakness of the tsarist system to police and control sex work, and thus illustrates agency where scholars had traditionally assumed passivity. This eye-opening book is sure to captivate readers and scholars interested in a variety of fields, including the history of gender and sexuality, imperial culture, labour and migration studies, and military history." -- Colleen Lucey, Revolutionary Russia

"a fascinating read" -- Christiane Brenner, H-Soz-Kult