Mythological Migrations: Imagining Queer Muslim Utopias—Artistic and Curatorial Strategies of Collaboration, Collective Resistance, and Coalition Building
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Doctoral thesis (monograph)
| Defence date: 2025-12-04
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Language
en
Pages
248
Series
Aalto University publication series Doctoral Theses, 239/2025
Abstract
Mythological Migrations: Imagining Queer Muslim Utopias—Artistic and Curatorial Strategies of Collaboration, Collective Resistance, and Coalition-Building is a multidisciplinary doctoral dissertation that examines formations of queer identity, resistance, and community in Muslim migratory contexts through contemporary art practice. Set against the background of rising Islamophobia, racism, anti-immigrant sentiments, homophobia, and transphobia in the west over the last two and a half decades, the project seeks to expand critical queer Muslim migratory perspectives and challenge the prevalent belief that Islam and liberal discourses on gender and sexuality are mutually incompatible. The thesis builds upon transnational feminist and queer intersectional scholarship alongside traditions of translation, interpretation, and innovation in Islamic art and cultural histories to disrupt dominant western-centric constructions of queerness and forefront representation of non-heteronormative gender and sexual identities from diverse positionalities. Focusing on the aftermath of the 2015 Syrian migrant crisis, the project examines specific Islamophobic and racist incidents concerning Arab and African LGBTIQA+ refugees at gay nightclubs and cruising sites in Finland and beyond. These issues of exclusion experienced by queer racialized immigrants in Finland are situated in the region’s history of colonial complicity, fabricated nationalistic constructions, invisible whiteness, and its relationship to what Ramón Grosfoguel (2011) describes as the modern/colonial capitalist/patriarchal world system—an overarching structure instituted to maintain and advance western imperial and geopolitical interests. The dissertation comprises two pre-examined artistic components, Chapter 1: The Nightclub (2019) and Chapter 2: The Darkroom (2020), and this monograph. Its theoretical framework engages concepts of feminist border thinking by Maria Lugones (2010) and queer assemblages by Jasbir K. Puar (2005) to explore artistic and curatorial methodologies that de-center from the world system and articulate queer Muslim immigrant experiences, positionalities, and imaginaries through collaborative, collective, and coalition-building strategies. The artistic components, organized as live and immersive events, feature films created by the author, works from invited artists, filmmakers, musicians, and scholars, and dialogues, demonstrating diverse approaches to queer Muslim and racialized migratory discourses.Description
Supervising professor
Kallio-Tavin, Mira, Adjunct Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art and Media, FinlandThesis advisor
Kim, Jeuno Je, Assoc. Prof., The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, DenmarkKallio-Tavin, Mira, Adjunct Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art and Media, Finland