University of British Columbia

Graduate Student, Human Development, Learning and Culture

PhD Candidate

Thesis Title: : No Arrival: Migrations, Intimacies and the Practices of Un/belonging for Transient Queer Lives in Canada

About

My dissertation project critically engages with the seemingly liberatory, yet often contradictory accounts of “mobilities” and their mediated nature (Urry, 2007) in the context of transnational migration with an interest in illuminating how mobility is actually practiced and the complex social relations that surround it. This study situates the question of mobility in the everyday life contexts of queer migrants from Asia-Pacific in Vancouver, Canada, drawing from critical theories of race and sexuality, postcolonial and migration studies, as well as cultural studies of media (Luibhéid, 2008; Manalansan, 2003). The objectives of the study are to: 1) describe the contexts and nature of ‘queer migration’ both as practice and process; 2) articulate the normative conditions and logics of racialized, sexualized and national belongings that queer migrants negotiate throughout their migration experiences; 3) document how they make use of social media and other communication tools so as to access and participate in mediated publics and social networks; and 4) demonstrate how, and under what conditions, these media engagements may translate into the actual mobilities of multiply displaced groups of people in both local and global locations. Through analysis of ethnographic interviews and an archive of media artefacts, I map out the contemporary ‘media ecologies’ in a ‘queer diaspora’ (Eng, 2010; Gopinath, 2007), and offer an in-depth analysis of the practices of mobility that unfold across on/offline locations.

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