Current Projects
Ambivalent Democracies: Intersectional Feminist and Queer Defiant Visions
This transdisciplinary theoretical project examines how anti-racist feminist and queer theories construct, mobilize and reimagine democracy. Rather than reducing democracy to a mode of government, democracy is conceptualized broader, in its cultural politics.
The project explores the tension between democracy as a catalyst for anti-racist feminist and queer justice and democracy as a means to uphold hegemonic power relations. In doing so, the book explores democracy in its multiplicities and ambivalence. Ultimately, the project seeks to provide an anti-racist, queer-feminist understanding of how democracy can be mobilized against inequalities, both in their material and symbolic dimensions.
Funded by the 2021 Emma Goldman Award (FLAX Foundation)
Fostering Queer Feminist Intersectional Resistances against Transnational Anti-Gender Politics (RESIST)
RESIST addresses ‘anti-gender’ politics that imperil equality, gender and sexual diversity, and legitimacy of critical knowledge in contemporary Europe. Crucial to our project is to learn about the feminist and queer practices of resistance against ‘anti-gender’ politics, how they function and are theorised in autonomous, grassroots collectives and organisations in our 8 country cases: Ireland, Spain, Belarus, France, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Greece, and in one transnational case of people living in exile due to ‘anti-gender’ politics.
Funded by EU Horizon Europe, Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (EU Horizon Europe grant no. 101060749)
More on the project website
Selected Completed Projects
Capacity Building for Rainbow Families in Switzerland and Beyond
Through the framework of community-based participatory action research, the project aimed to facilitate social and political change for LGBTQ parents and their children in the rural alpine Canton of Valais. The project also developped accessible research methods that allow rainbow family communities to map and understand their situation and needs.
Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
January 2020-May 2022
Advancing Liveable Lives for Lesbians in Europe – Intersectional Challenges and Future Policy-Making
The research project assessed the need to specifically attend to lesbians in European equality and anti-discrimination policies. It did so by identifying the intersectional needs and challenges faced by lesbians in the EU. The subsequent report identifies policy areas, institutions, instruments and strategies that are crucial in addressing the inequalities lesbians encounter. The research report can be found here.
Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ)
September 2019-November 2020
Race in Post-racial Europe: An Intersectional Analysis
Race in Post-racial Europe explored the intersection of postfeminism and post-racialism in Europe. The book opens with a theorisation of race and post-racial denial in contemporary Europe. It then looks at the racial underpinnings of postfeminist discourses, concretely the racialised sexualisation and demonisation of women of colour in popular culture and policy discourses. The book further explores the racial logics of the cultural politics around diversity, homophobia and intersectionality.
September 2016-August 2019
Dancing Salsa in Post-thinking Europe: Gender and Sexuality Discourses Among Salsa Dancers in Switzerland and England
Drawing on unstructured in-depth interviews with heterosexual and lesbian/gay salsa dancers, this PhD project explored how gendered and sexualised formations come into being in Swiss and British salsa dance spaces and what effect this has on queer dancers. The thesis further explored the racialised dimension of gendered salsa dance discourses, especially stereotypical understandings of Latinidad.
Funded by the British Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
September 2011-February 2016