
Mai, N. (2018) Mobile Orientations: An Intimate Autoethnography of Migration, Sex Work, and Humanitarian Borders, Chicago: Chicago University Press – American Sociological Association Sexualities Section 2020 Distinguished Book Award.
Publication Record
My research findings inform over 60 publications in Albania, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US in high impact, world-leading journals. I was cited 2475 times and I have an H-Index score of 27 and an I10-Index score of 38. The Impact Factor (IF) of journals in which my work appears include: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (IF 3,11); Gender Place and Culture (IF 1.18); Ethnic and Racial Studies (IF 1,72) Mobilities (IF 1,58); Population, Place and Space (IF 2,59); Sexualities (IF 1,76); and Social Sciences (IF 1,30).
Drafts of many of my publications are available on my profiles on Academia.edu and/or on Researchgate.net
Authored Books
Mai, N. (2018) Mobile Orientations. An Intimate Autoethnography of Migration, Sex Work and Humanitarian Borders. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Hickman, M., Mai, N. and Crowley, H. (2012) Migration and Social Cohesion in the UK, Palgrave Macmillan.
King, R. and Mai, N. (2008) Out of Albania, Oxford: Berghahn.
King, R., Mai, N. and Dalipaj, M. (2003) Exploding the Migration Myths. Analysis and Recommendations for the European Union, the UK and Albania, London: Oxfam and Fabian Society.
Journal Articles
Mai, N., & Winslet, L. (2022). CAER: Co-creating a Collaborative Documentary about the Lives and Rights of Trans Latinx People Working in the Sex Industry in Queens, NYC. Anti-Trafficking Review, (19), 130–133. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.2012221910
Giametta, C., Mai, N., Musto, J., Bennachie, C., Fehrenbacher, A. E., Hoefinger, H., & Macioti, P. (2022). Racialization within Antitrafficking Interventions Targeting Migrant Sex Workers: Findings from the SEXHUM Research Project in France. Sociological Research Online, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804221090354
Calogero Giametta, Dinah de Riquet-Bons, PG Macioti, Nick Mai, Calum Bennachie, Anne Fehrenbacher, Heidi Hoefinger, Jennifer Musto (2022) ‘Racial Profiling and The Larger Impact of Covid-19 on Migrant Sex Workers in France’. International Journal of Gender, Sexuality and Law 2(2): 225-251. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19164/ijgsl.v2i1.1261
Mai, N. (2021) ‘Films Collaboratifs, Ethnofiction et Vérité Socio-anthropologique à l’Ère de l’Humanitarisme Sexuel’, Images du travail, travail des images 10. Online Journal. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/itti/1511
Mai, N., Macioti, PG, Bennachie, C., Fehrenbacher A. E., Giametta, C., Hoefinger, H. and Musto, J. (2021) ‘Migration, Sex Work and Trafficking: the Racialized Bordering Politics of Sexual Humanitarianism’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2021.1892790
Bennachie, C., Pickering, H., Lee, J., Macioti, PG, Mai, N., Fehrenbacher, A.E., Giametta, C., Hoefinger, H. and Musto, J. (2021) ‘Unfinished Decriminalization: The Impact of Section 19 of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 on Migrant Sex Workers’ Rights and Lives in Aotearoa New Zealand’. Social Sciences 10: 179. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050179
Musto, J., Fehrenbacher, A.E., Hoefinger, H., Mai, N., Macioti, PG, Bennachie, C., Giametta, C. and D’Adamo, K.’ (2021) Anti-Trafficking in the Time of FOSTA/SESTA: Networked Moral Gentrification and Sexual Humanitarian Creep’, Social Sciences 10(2):58. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10020058
Macioti PG, Aroney E., Bennachie C., Fehrenbacher A. E., Giametta C., Hoefinger H., Mai N., Musto J. (2020) ‘Framing the Mother Tac: The Racialised, Sexualised and Gendered Politics of Modern Slavery in Australia’, Social Sciences 9(11):192.
Fehrenbacher, A., Musto, J., Hoefinger, H., Mai, N., Macioti, PG, Giametta, C. and Calum Bennachie, C. (2020) ‘Transgender People and Human Trafficking: Intersectional Exclusion of Transgender Migrants and People of Color from Anti-trafficking Protection in the United States’, Journal of Human Trafficking 6(2): 182-194. DOI: 10.1080/23322705.2020.1690116.
Hoefinger, H., Musto, J., Macioti, PG., Fehrenbacher, A., Mai, N., Bennachie, C. and Giametta, C. (2019) ‘Community-Based Responses to Negative Health Impacts of Sexual Humanitarian Anti-Trafficking Policies and the Criminalization of Sex Work and Migration in the US’, Social Sciences. 9. 1. 10.3390/socsci9010001.
Mai N. (2017) ‘Mobile Orientations: An Autoethnography of Tunisian Professional Boyfriends’, Sexualities 20(4): 482–496.
Andrijasevic, R. and Mai, N. (2016) ‘Editorial: Trafficking (in) Representations: Understanding the Recurring Appeal of Victimhood and Slavery in Neoliberal Times’, Anti-Trafficking Review 7: 1-10.
Mai, N. (2016) “Too Much Suffering”: Understanding the Interplay Between Migration, Bounded Exploitation and Trafficking Through Nigerian Sex Workers’ Experiences’, Sociological Research Online 21(4): 1-14. Available online: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/21/4/13.html – DOI: 10.5153/sro.4158
Mai, N. (2016) ‘Assembling Samira: Understanding Sexual Humanitarianism through Experimental Filmmaking,’ antiAtlas Journal, 1. Available online: http://www.antiatlas-journal.net/01-assembling-samira-understanding-sexual-humanitarianism-throughexperimental-filmmaking
Hickman, M. and Mai, N. (2015) ‘Migration and Social Cohesion: Appraising the Resilience of Place in London’, Population, Space and Place 21(5): 421-432.
Mai, N. (2013) ‘Embodied Cosmopolitanisms: the Subjective Mobility of Migrants Working in the Global Sex Industry, Gender, Place and Culture, 20(1): 107-124.
Mai, N. (2012) ‘The Fractal Queerness of Non-Heteronormative Migrants Working in the UK Sex Industry’, Sexualities, 15(5-6): 570-585.
Mai, N. (2011) ‘Tampering with the Sex of “Angels”: Migrant Male Minors and Young Adults Selling Sex in the EU’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(8): 1237-1252.
Mai, N. (2010) ‘The Politicisation of Migrant Minors: Italo-Romanian Geopolitics and EU Integration’, Area, 42(2): 182-9.
Mai, N. (2009) ‘Between Minor and Errant Mobility: the Relation Between the Psychological Dynamics and the Migration Patterns of Young Men Selling Sex in the EU’, Mobilities, 4(3): 349-366.
King, R. and Mai, N. (2009) ‘Italophilia Meets Albanophobia: Paradoxes of Asymmetric Assimilation and Identity Processes among Albanian Immigrants in Italy’, in Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32(1): 117 – 138.
Mai, N. and King, R. (2009) ‘Love, Sexuality and Migration: Mapping the Issue(s)’, Mobilities, 4(3): 295-307.
King, R., Dalipaj, M. and Mai, N. (2006) ‘Gendering Migration and Remittances: Evidence from London and Northern Albania’ in Population, Space and Place, 12(6): 409-434
Mai, N. (2005) ‘Transnational Media and Migration: the Re-negotiation of “Youth Identities” within the Albanian Migratory Flow’, in Transitions, 451(1): 79-91. Available online: http://www.ulb.ac.be/is/045-7Mai.pdf
Mai, N. (2005) ‘The Albanian Diaspora in the Making: Media, Transnational Identities and Migration’, in Georgiou, M. and Silverstone, R. (eds) ‘Media and Participation in Multicultural Societies’, special issue of Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, pp. 543-561.
Mai, N. (2004) ‘Looking for a More Modern Life…: the Role of Italian Television in the Albanian Migration to Italy’ in Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 1(1): 3-22. Available online: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/pdf/Mai.pdf
King, R. and Mai, N. (2004) ‘Albanian Immigrants in Lecce and Modena: Narratives of Rejection, Survival and Integration’, Population, Space and Place, 10(6): 455-478.
Mai, N. (2003) ‘The Cultural Construction of Italy in Albania and Vice Versa: Migration Dynamics, Strategies of Resistance and Politics of Mutual Self-definition across Colonialism and Post-colonialism’ in Modern Italy, 8(1): 77-94.
Edited Books and Journal Special Issues
Mai, N. (2021) ‘Sociological Perspectives on (Sexual) Humanitarian Governance of Migrant Sex Work’, special issue of the Social Sciences journal.
Andrijasevic, R. and Mai, N. (2016) ‘Trafficking (in) Representations’, special issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review 7.
King, R. and Mai, N. (2009) (eds) ‘Love, Sexuality and Migration’, guest-edited special issue of the Mobilities journal, 4(3).
King, R., Mai, N. and Schwanders-Sievers, S. (2005) (eds) The New Albanian Migration, Brighton: Sussex Academic Press.
Mai, N. and Schwandners-Sievers, S. (2003) (eds) ‘Albanian Migration and New Transnationalisms’, special issue of Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 29(7).
Book Chapters
Mai, N (2015) Surfing Liquid Modernity: Albanian and Romanian Male Sex Workers in Europe. In Aggleton, P and Parker, R (eds) Men Who Sell Sex: Global Perspectives, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 27-41.
Mai, N. (2014) Between Embodied Cosmopolitism and Sexual Humanitarianism: the Fractal Mobilities and Subjectivities of Migrants Working in the Sex Industry, in Baby-Collins, V. and Anteby, L. (eds) Borders, Mobilities and Migrations, Perspectives from the Mediterranean in the 21st Century, Brussels: Peter Lang, pp. 175-192.
Mai, N. and Paladini, C. (2013) Flexible circularities: Integration, Return and Socio-Economic Instability within the Albanian Migration to Italy, in Triandafyllidou, A. (ed) Circular Migration Between Europe and its Neighbourhood, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 42-68.
Mai, N. (2011) Marginalised (Male) Young Migrants in the EU: Caught Between the Desire for Autonomy and the Priorities of Social Protection, in Migrating Alone: Unaccompanied and Separated Children’s Migration to Europe, Paris: UNESCO, pp. 69-90.
Mai, N. (2007) Errance, Migration and Male Sex Work: on the Socio-cultural Sustainability of a Third Space in Ossman, S. (Ed.) Places We Share: Migration, Subjectivity, and Global Mobility, Lanham (MD): Lexington Books, pp. 97-120.
Mai, N. (2007) Albania, in Poddar, P., Patke, R. and Jensen, L. (eds) A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures in Continental Europe and its Empires, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 270-71.
Kapllani, G. and Mai, N. (2005) Greece belongs to Greeks!: the case of the Greek flag in the hands of an Albanian student, in King, R., Mai, N. and Schwanders-Sievers, S. (2005) (eds) The New Albanian Migration, Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, pp. 153-172.
Mai, N. (2004) Albanian Masculinities, Sex work and Migration: Homosexuality, AIDS and other Moral Threats, in Worton, M. and Wilson-Tagoe, N. (eds) National Healths: Gender, Sexuality and Health in a Cross-cultural context, London: UCL Press, pp.45-58.
Mai, N. (2002) Myths and Moral panics: Italian Identity and the Media Representation of Albanian Immigration, in Grillo, R.D. and Pratt, J. (eds.) The Politics of Recognising Difference: Multiculturalism Italian Style. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 77-95.
Mai, N. (2002) Youth NGOs in Albania: Civil Society Development, Local Cultural Constructions of Democracy and Strategies of Survival at Work, in Schwandners-Sievers, S. and Fischer, B. J. (eds) Albanian Identities: Myth, Narratives and Politics, London: Hurst, pp. 215-225.
Mai, N. (2001) Transforming Traditions: a Critical Analysis of the Trafficking and Exploitation of Albanian Girls in Italy, in King, R. (Ed) The Mediterranean Passage Migration and New Cultural Encounters in Southern Europe, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 258-278.
Mai, N. (2001) The Archives of Memory: Specific Results from Research in Serbia, in Losi, N. Passerini, L. and Salvatici, S. (eds.) Archives of Memory: Supporting Traumatised Communities through Narration and Remembrance, Geneva: International Organization for Migration, Psychosocial Notebook Vol. 2, pp. 87-135.
Mai, N. (2001) ‘Italy is Beautiful’: the Role of Italian Television in the Albanian Migratory Flow to Italy, in King, R. and Wood, N. (eds) Media and Migration: Constructions of Mobility and Difference, London: Routledge, pp. 95-109.
Other publications (research reports and working papers)
Macioti, PG, Garofalo-Geymonat, G. and Mai, N. (2021) Sex Work and Mental Health: Access to Mental Health Services for People Who Sell Sex (SWMH) in Germany, Italy, Sweden and UK. Available online: https://www.nswp.org/resource/research/sex-work-and-mental-health
Mai, N., Giametta, C. and Le Bail, H. (2018) The Impact of the ‘Swedish model’ in France: Chronicle of a Disaster Foretold. Available online: https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/nicola-mai-calogero-giametta-h-l-ne-le-bail/impact-of-swedish-model-in-france-chronicl
Mai, N. (2011) Albanian Migration to Italy: Towards Differential Circularisations? Final report of the METOIKOS project, available online: http://www.eui.eu/Projects/METOIKOS/Documents/BackgroundReports/BackgrounReportItalyAlbania.pdf
Mai, N. (2009) Migrant Workers in the UK Sex Industry – Policy Relevant Report, ISET – London Metropolitan University, available online: https://www.academia.edu/1235243/Migrant_workers_in_the_UK_Sex_industry_2009_
Mai, N. (2008) Opportunities and Challenges for Social Intervention Aimed at Migrant Minors, Save the Children Italy, Rome.
Mai, N. (2008) Albanian Migrations: Demographic and Other Transformations, in Batt, J. (Ed.) Is there an Albanian question? Paris: EU Institute for Security Studies, pp. 61-72. Available online: http://www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/cp107.pdf