Migration and Diaspora Cultural Studies Network (MDCSN)
Queer Diasporas
Convenors: Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Chris Perriam
The diaspora and migration of people, thought and discourses in connection with sexuality and transformations of identity in general will be the subject of this strand. This will be approached by discussing representations and experiences of migrating desires through examples from visual and popular culture, literary studies, ethnographic and sociological work. The strand will engage also with questions of sexual and migration control regimes and look at the connections, overlaps and points of articulation between both. A further question will be how identities, cultures and spaces are on the one hand shaped and transformed and on the other constrained and put under surveillance in the context of migration and diaspora. We will approach these questions on different levels:
- Stories of (forced) Displacement:
Taking into consideration the internal migration of homosexually identified people from rural to urban places, but also the migration from one country to another as well as the constraints experienced by migrants and refugees through migration and asylum regimes worldwide. Sources employed would include medical treatises on identified homosexuals, literary accounts and diaries as well as ethnographic studies. - Diaspora of Thought and Knowledge
The migration of ideas and debates around homosexuality, the LGBT movement, and queer theory will be at the centre of our interest. Drawing on examples of the migration of medical discourses and knowledges on homosexuality (eg. in Spain) from their centres of production such as Universities, hospitals and psychiatrists' practices, both to other geographical locations and to the general public. - Queering Identities and Assemblage
The connection between sexual and migration control regimes will also be addressed by drawing on actual debates around "queer politics" and "racialising queer".