Transitions: Examining Changing Regimes of Sexuality in Post-Soviet Muslim Republics

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Timothy Nunan
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Allgemeine und vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft; Kulturwissenschaft ; Islamwissenschaft, Arabistik, Semitistik ; Neuere und Neueste Geschichte (einschl. Europäische Geschichte der Neuzeit und Außereuropäische Geschichte) ; Theater- und Medienwissenschaften
• Förderung: Förderung seit 2024
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 547531808

Religion plays an important role in the construction of gender and sexualities, and subsequently, in the production of the frameworks of belonging, nationhood, and global citizenship. The proposed research will investigate changing regimes of sexuality in Muslim Republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia that underwent multiple transitions in the 1980s-90s. Bracketed by the start of the War in Afghanistan in 1979 and the launch of the War on Terror in 2001, this often-overlooked period is pivotal in terms of global political and cultural transformations, including the enhanced visibility of LGBTQI+ and repositioning of Muslim Republics. These include Iran embracing Islamism, Turkey emerging from dictatorship, and the Muslim Republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia shifting from the secular structures imposed by the Soviet state to post-independence religious plurality. The term 'transitions' signifies two interconnected processes: (1) political and cultural re-orientations that occurred in the context of shifting centers of power; and (2) artistic re-imaginings of cultural heritage and creation of new/revised practices in the context of changing regimes of sexuality. Through the lens of national and interregional exchanges, especially with Iran and Turkey, the proposed research will examine the role of non-normative gender and sexualities in the Muslim Republics’ search for a national identity under the conditions of newly embraced nationalism and resurgent religiosity. By focusing on two cases - Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan - where there are thriving queer cultures and robust institutions invested in protecting cultural heritage, the research will produce a more inclusive and more nuanced framework to understand the relationship between Islam and non-normative gender and sexualities. This first of its kind research will be guided by the following questions: How were discourses about LGBTQI+ formed? How did the local terms and visual codes engage with the Anglophone, Farsi, Russophone and Turkic systems of identification of non-normative gender and sexualities? How did the selected countries use these discourses to position themselves on the global stage vis-à-vis the shifting centers of power? What new alliances did they seek? Spanning the disciplines of Area Studies, Queer Studies, Cultural Studies, History, and International Relations, this pioneering research will analyze political, legal, and media discourses alongside cultural manifestations of LGBTQI+ in Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan. In terms of theory, this ground-breaking research will (a) expand the scope of queer theory and LGBTQI+ studies to chart the impact of identity politics-religion, in particular-on the constructions of nonnormative gender and sexualities; and (b) review critically the colonial-era concepts of 'the Caucasus', 'Central Asia', the 'Russian near abroad' and 'the Turkic world' and test theoretical potentialities of de-colonial geo-cultural affiliations such as SWANA.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen
• Internationaler Bezug: Großbritannien
• Partnerorganisation: Arts and Humanities Research Council
• Kooperationspartner: Professor Dr. Vlad Strukov