My research situates fat sex workers as agents of change, emphasising their capacity to resist systemic oppression while imagining and creating liberatory futures. Through the concept of FAT Utopias, the project bridges theory and praxis, offering both analytical insights and practical tools for advocacy. By centring pleasure, empowerment, and collective imagination, I challenge the dominant focus on stigma and instead highlight fat sex workers’ strategies for resistance and joy.

Fat sex workers occupy a unique position at the intersections of fatphobia and whorephobia. Building on my Master’s research, which explored how fat sex workers experience stigma and discrimination, my doctoral project asks how fat sex workers navigate these compounded exclusions while also envisioning more liberatory futures.

Theoretically, I draw on a transfeminist lens to understand how intersecting oppressions shape lived experiences and to frame collective imagination as a political act. The concept of FAT Utopias, developed through reflection within the grassroots fat liberationist collective Grassi Diritti I am part of, serves as both method and vision, allowing participants to imagine a world where their bodies, labour, and identities are celebrated rather than marginalised.

Methodologically, my project combines digital ethnography, semi-structured interviews, and participatory FAT Utopia workshops, developed in collaboration with the ESWA. This design centres participants’ voices and produces knowledge collectively. The workshops culminate in a FAT Utopias Manifesto, an actionable resource for advocacy and policy that bridges academic inquiry with community priorities.