Zona Norte ― The Post-Structural Body of Erotic Dancers and Sex Workers in Tijuana, San Diego and Los Angeles: An Auto/Ethnography of Desire and Addiction

When independent anthropologist Hemmingson began this study, his intention was to produce an ethnographic account of the working conditions of sex workers in Tijuana, Mexico, and just across the US border in San Diego, California. As he came to question his own motivations for this line of research, however, he turned the study into an auto/ethnography and placed himself and his experiences as researcher/sex client at the heart of the investigation while simultaneously incorporating aspects of the original question into the narrative. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Michael Hemmingson is an independent scholar whose fieldwork in anthropology and communications centers on deviance in society and the edges of cultural exploration. His collection, Auto/ethnographies: Sex, Death, and Symbolic Interaction is published by The Borgo Press. Other academic books include Gordon Lish and His Influence on 20th Century Literature (Routledge) and Women in the Work and Life of Raymond Carver (McFarland). His articles and essays have appeared in Life Writing, Forum: Social Science Research, Journal of Sex Research, ZYZZYVA, and the San Diego Reader. He has published several novels and edited four anthologies, and his feature film, The Watermelon, was produced by LightSong Films in 2008. He lives in southern California.