Outline
This summer I will be undertaking the research project entitled ‘Queering Citizenship: LGBT+ Activism in Democratic Transitions in South America’, which aims to investigate how political transformation has reshaped and expanded LGBT+ rights and recognition. This project will look at the recent political and social history of South America, highlighting the transition from authoritarian rule to democracy across much of the continent, and will delve into national perspectives through specific, relevant case studies.
This will be conducted through archival research, literature reviews, and legal analysis of law and policy surrounding the LGBT+ community. The project findings will be published in both Spanish and English with the goal of making it more accessible.
Project Aims
This project aims to assess and analyse the relationship between the law and LGBT+ communities during periods of political transformation in South America. It will evaluate the extent to which democratic transitions have extended rights, and how these changes have been achieved. The project will consider political movements, state policies, grassroots organisations, and protests in its findings. I hope to be able to provide a comprehensive investigation into the intersectional and evolving citizenship of LGTB+ individuals in South America in the context of political and legal change while promoting accessibility to a wider community.
Studying law and languages has highlighted the importance of the multi-faceted relationship between the law and its citizens, and combining this with the deeply personal topic of LGBT+ rights has motivated me to engage with this topic in depth. The LGBT+ community has historically been under-researched and under-represented, therefore I believe that studying this topic will be extremely beneficial and an absolute privilege.