Pamela Tsui, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, has been awarded the prestigious Daniel G. Hill Prize for the best graduate paper in sociology. The Daniel G. Hill Prize is named in honor of the late Daniel G. Hill, a prominent figure in Canadian sociology who made significant contributions to the study of race, identity, and social justice in Canada. Tsui’s work continues this legacy by addressing crucial issues of gender, sexuality, and social norms in a global context. This annual award recognizes exceptional scholarship on Canadian society, and Tsui’s work was selected for its innovative contributions to the understanding of gender, sexuality, and social norms.
Tsui’s paper is based on her 29-month ethnographic study of a sex party club in Hong Kong, where she examines the tension between normative aspirations and nonnormative desires among heterosexual, cisgender participants. Through her research, Tsui introduces the concept of "bounded nonnormativity," a framework that explores how participants temporarily suspend normative constraints in the liminal space of sex parties, only to reinforce their normative roles in everyday life.
Drawing on queer critiques of normativity and feminist analyses of gendered hierarchies, Tsui’s work highlights how these spaces serve as a rare opportunity for men and women to navigate and cope with gendered constraints in distinct ways. For men, the sex parties offer a respite from performing respectable masculinity, while for women, they provide a rare chance to resist (hetero)sexism. While the practices observed in these spaces largely reinforce societal norms, Tsui argues that they also hold liberatory potential, offering a reimagining of feminist and queer possibilities, especially in restrictive sociopolitical environments.
This paper, which originated from Tsui’s master’s thesis and was developed during the 2020-21 research practicum in the Department of Sociology, has also earned an Honorable Mention for the Best Paper Award 2024 by the Hong Kong Sociological Association.
Tsui’s research explores the intersections of gender and sexuality, social movements, economic sociology, and ethnographic methods. Her work pushes the boundaries of how sociologists understand normative and nonnormative behaviors in the context of contemporary social practices, offering new insights into the complexities of gender and power dynamics.