Queer Asia as Method
Queer Asia as Method is now a six-year, community-embedded research and public engagement project that began with an interdisciplinary roundtable in 2021, bringing together scholars, artists, filmmakers, and practitioners from across East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and diaspora to challenge the dominance of Western queer theory. From 2021 to now, three public workshops were convened, combining academic discussion with practitioner contributions, artist presentations, and community dialogue. Participants included LGBTQ+ community organisations, independent filmmakers, youth workers, and cultural activists alongside researchers, with audiences spanning the UK, East and Southeast Asia, South Asia, and North America.
Working in partnership with Queer East and the Queer Asia Film Festival, the project developed a model of engagement that placed community knowledge alongside scholarly research. Film screenings, Q&As with filmmakers and producers, and curated cross-sector discussions made the research accessible to non-specialist audiences engaging with questions of sexuality, race, and cultural politics in Asian contexts.
The research firstly culminated in a co-edited special issue, “Queer Asia as Method,” published in Media, Culture & Society (2025), with contributions from scholars and practitioners in the UK, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the broader Asia-Pacific region. A hybrid public launch event on 7 May 2026 at King’s College London, co-organised with Queer@King’s and Queer Asia, features a panel discussion with contributors, a Queer Asia Film Festival screening, and the launch of a freely downloadable digital resource pack for community educators, youth workers, cultural practitioners, and LGBTQ+ communities.
