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Ara Wilson is a university professor and author.
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Ara Wilson is a university professor and author.
Her work focuses on the feminist ethnography of globalization through description and analysis of various market economies. Her work examines the cultural, social, and sexual aspects of Bangkok economies, as well as illustrating the inaccuracies of Eurocentric ideology.
Between 1988 and 2000, Wilson did fieldwork in Thailand, doing research for The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City. [1] Wilson’s research is heavily focused on sexual and ethnic identity which “are produced and transformed through the modernity of the non-Western world”. [2] Wilson is currently director of the program in the study of sexualities at Duke University, where she is also an Associate Professor of Women’s Studies. [1] Wilson works extensively with non-governmental organizations dealing with women’s rights, as well as sexual rights in Thailand. [1]
Wilson got most of her research for The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City from the two years field work she spent in Bangkok from Dec 1992 – Jan 1994, as well as from many of her visits ranging from 1988-2000.[ citation needed ] During this time, she worked part-time in a telecommunications marketing office, which gave her access to social scenes and "participant observations." Like any other ethnographer, Wilson conducted most of her fieldwork alone, relying mostly on informal interviews and day-to-day conversations. Her interviewees were usually ages 20–25, many of Chinese descent, with economic standings ranging from minor royalty to peasants. [1]
Living at the edge of Bangkok's Chinatown, Wilson observed Sino-Thai business families, major market areas of the city, the prostitution industry, and the class/gender/sexual dimensions of professional identities in transnational corporations. [1] She gathered information primarily on key intersections of social identity and relationships, by focusing on the behavior of architecture, material objects, primary texts, secondary texts, and especially business press. [1] Specific commercial sites included shophouses, retail stores like the Central Department Store, the tourist sex trade of the go-go bars, the popular downtown shopping mall MBK, a telecommunications marketing office, and direct sales such as Amway and Avon. [1]
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