I am a PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, where I research queer migration in Central Asia. My PhD is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences, and is provisionally titled "Becoming a Queer Migrant in Kazakhstan: Choices, Pathways, Identities."
Including extensive fieldwork and language training, my PhD is designed to be an impactful, participant-led study exploring the formation of pre-movement migratory plans and decisions. Through a participatory exploration of pre-movement queer migration decision-making with queer migrants and aspiring queer migrants in Kazakhstan, I aim to shed new light on queer migratory aspiration and destination choice not just in Kazakhstan but also across other countries and regions.
You can find more on my University of Glasgow researcher page.
Academic publications
‘As long as you’re not an asshole’: insider-outsider dynamics in queer research
‘As long as you’re not an asshole, then why not?’ I had just asked a friend and research participant whether he thought someone like me had any business doing research on queer migration in Kazakhstan – someone like me being a white, cis, queer man from Western Europe. Should I leave the queer Kazakhstan research to queer Kazakhstani researchers, I asked.
As we chatted in a quiet corner of a cafe, it became clear that he did not have the easy answer I had rather unfairly hoped for. For him, the terms insider and outsider did not immediately come to mind, but they resonated. Sure, he knew I was not from Kazakhstan – something that cannot be missed, really – but that was not a barrier, so long as I was, as he said, not an asshole. What did he mean by that?
For most of Europe-Asia Studies’ history, LGBTQ+ topics were barely mentioned and rarely discussed—a reflection of different times. The first mention of anything even slightly queer is a complaint attributed to Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg in 1954 about ‘jealous homosexuals’ amongst the ‘freaks’ favoured as heroes by bourgeois writers of the time. For the next 35 years little trace of queers, jealous or otherwise, is found. From 1989, mentions appear in passing: rumours about politicians’ sexuality dropped in footnotes, and gay men used in surveys as a barometer for social liberalism. But queer voices, or discussion of what such attitudes about them meant for them, took a few more years to appear.
“It’s half being queer, and half just wanting to leave:” queer migration in Kazakhstan
Queer migration has been studied among different groups and in different regions of the world but so far no comprehensive study has been undertaken in Central Asia. Much existing queer migration research focuses on specific destination countries or specific migratory pathways, and is often explored after the fact. This dissertation is based on qualitative research with aspiring queer migrants before they embark on a journey.
Through examinations of the decisions to migrate, which migratory pathway to take, and where to go, this dissertation offers the first academic insight into the phenomenon of queer migration in Kazakhstan. It brings new contributions on the factors behind queer mobility and immobility, explores the ‘queer lens’ through which aspiring queer migrants view migratory processes and decisions, and explores how their queer, national and ethnic identities intersect in these processes.
"Congratulations on being appointed as newly independent Scotland’s first Ambassador to Central Asia. The Scottish Government has decided to place only one embassy in the region, which will provide diplomatic and consular coverage of all five countries in the region, as well as serving as an important channel for Scotland’s soft power projection.
As one of the country’s foremost experts on Central Asia, the Prime Minister has invited you to lead an initial mission to five countries to assess their suitability to host the embassy. You will visit each capital, meet with leaders and ultimately decide which city you will recommend to the Prime Minister."
I created this interactive, text-based story as the final coursework project for a master’s level course in Political Communication at KIMEP University, Almaty Kazakhstan. An academic paper accompanies the story, with citations and more formal explanations of the basis for the game. Everything can be found on the Letters to Scotland minisite.
