This research looks at the significance of cosmopolitan socialities and intimacies following disasters, and the opportunities and risks they offer for restorative and reparative action for survivors and their communities. Reporting in particular on the experiences of LGBTQ Filipinos in post-Haiyan Tacloban, I discuss how the presence of foreign aid workers in everyday social spaces provided opportunities for queer identity expression and social attachments. I argue that cosmopolitan socialities, including new connections initiated via mobile dating platforms, were embraced by LGBTQs for their potential to share and repurpose wounds after rupture, especially in a conservative small-town context where LGBTQ identities have been historically repressed. This article attends to the opportunities and risks of queer cosmopolitanism as an uneven experience between middle-class and low-income LGBTQs.
I have one journal article accepted and forthcoming from this project:
1. Ong, J.C. 2017. “Queer Cosmopolitanism in the Disaster Zone: “My Grindr Became the United Nations.” International Communication Gazette.
I have presented this research in the following conferences/workshops.
1. Ong, J.C., (2016) Camp Convivialities and Refugee Communications Workshop, University of Leicester.
For inquiries about this project, email me at: jcong@umass.edu.
