Queer migrations and the political geographies of reception and encounter

This project examines how the politics of migrant 'integration' are negotiated and contested in Nordic LGBTQ spaces. To do this, I will conduct interview-based research with LGBTQ organizations across the Nordic countries, as well as ethnographic fieldwork and a participatory photo project undertaken in Helsinki and Copenhagen. Through these methods, the project investigates how queer spaces operate as places of reception and political participation for queer migrants as well as sites of encounter through which the political subjectivities of migrants and long-term residents alike emerge and change. This will contribute to ongoing scholarly conversations around queer migrations and the geographies of encounter, as well as illuminate the changing nature of Nordic LGBTQ spaces amidst the ongoing aftermath of the so-called 'migrant crisis' and the continued resurgence of racist, nationalist, and populist politics.