Val Webber, PhD
they/them
Val Webber, PhD studies community health needs and practices. They are especially interested in sex exceptionalism, health as a form of respectability politics, and epistemological power. They also examine how the regulation of pornography by governments, payment processors, and online platforms—often done in the name of ‘health’—exerts control over what forms of sexuality and sexual labour can exist on the internet. Their current scholarly home is as a postdoctoral fellow at the SHaG Lab.
They have 15+ years of experience working in various areas of the adult industry, and are board chair of PASS, a non-profit dedicated to porn performer health. They are on the Ethical Capital Partners advisory board. Community groups they have organized with include Queer Between the Covers, AIDS Community Care Montreal, and Safe Harbour Outreach Project. Their research and writing focus on occupational health and labour issues in porn and sex work, sexual and public health policy, and research methods and ethics. Several media outlets have covered their work, and they lecture to undergraduate and graduate classes on public health ethics and equity, sexual health and pornography, intersectionality in healthcare, and sex worker rights. While some previous work does not reflect this, they use they/them pronouns in English et le pronom iel avec les accords masculin en français.
They are also an avid zine maker and love a good saddle stapler.
