Institute for Media and Creative Industries academic awarded a British Academy grant
Dr Churnjeet Mahn (University of Strathclyde) and Dr Rohit K Dasgupta (Loughborough University London) have recently received funding from The British Academy for their project exploring the missing history of queer South Asian migration to the UK.
In the latest announcement of funding, 15 new research projects have been supported by The British Academy to help tackle the UK’s international challenges.
As part of the 2019 funding awards, Dr Churnjeet Mahn (Primary investigator, University of Strathclyde) and Dr Rohit K Dasgupta (Co-investigator, Loughborough University London) have been selected to receive funding of £37,559 from The British Academy for their project Cross-Border Queers: The Story of South Asian Migrants in the UK.
The 1960s mark the beginning of an organised LGBTQ civil rights movement in the UK, as well as larger waves of migration to the UK, however, there is little research on queer South Asians who arrived in the UK and how their experiences of racism, homophobia, and their transnational connections in South Asia, shaped their (inter)national experience of being queer.
The project Cross-Border Queers: The Story of South Asian Migrants in the UK will take place over 18 months involving archival and interview research. The British High Commission is also involved as a partner in the project with the first workshop delivered in Kolkata in December of this year.
Dr Rohit K Dasgupta, the co-investigator on the project said:
“I am very pleased this project has been awarded funding which will begin a new collaboration between Dr Mahn and myself. The story of South Asian queer migration in the United Kingdom has been quite patchy and this will be the first attempt using multidisciplinary approaches to tell that story. I am quite excited at what we might find.”
For more information on all of the projects announced, please see The British Academy website.