Amin Ghaziani

I am involved in two different interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research teams, both of which have successfully secured major research grants. The first project, an Insight Grant funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, is for “Understanding Decisions to Seek Conversion Therapy in Canada” ($143,125, PI: Dr. Travis Salway). The second project, an Operating Grant funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, is for “Displacement and the Health of People Living with HIV” ($447,136, PI: Dr. Rodney Knight).

I have been successfully renewed for a second term as a Canada Research Chair in Urban Sexualities. Fifteen UBC researchers were appointed as new and renewed CRCs in the most recent round of the competition.

As stated on the announcement from UBC, the Canada Research Chairs Program is among the highest research designations in the country. It enables Canadian universities to achieve research excellence and become world-class research centres. Chairholders improve our depth of knowledge and quality of life, strengthen Canada’s international competitiveness, and help train the next generation of scholars. There are very few scholars from the Arts in this most recent round of the competition, which makes me that much more grateful for the recognition.

On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) has invited me to deliver a keynote address at its upcoming conference in June. I have been tasked to set the agenda for future interdisciplinary and international collaborations on “Studies of Belonging.”

NIAS is the Netherlands’ only independent institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences. Founded in 1970, the Institute is the first of its kind in Europe and the third of its kind in the world.

I am delighted to announce my new publication, “Why Gayborhoods Matter: The Street Empirics of Urban Sexualities.”

Urban scholars should listen closely to LGBTQ+ people, whose street-level experiences and interactions facilitate a more nuanced understanding of gayborhoods than the supra-individual patterns distilled by conventional approaches. In other words, the reasons that residents provide for why their neighborhoods appeal to them showcase the analytic power of the streets for understanding what places mean, why they matter, and for cautioning against claims that cultural districts are becoming outmoded or obsolete.  

My article is part of Springer’s Urban Book Series. The edited volume in which it was published — The Life and Afterlife of Gay Neighborhoods — is available, in its entirety, as open access.

There is a vibrant literature on LGBTQ+ urban geographies, as well as established traditions in sociology and political science on collective action, but research infrequently brings these interdisciplinary fields of sexualities, social movements and urban studies together to explore the emplacement of LGBTQ+ urban activisms. In my new article in Urban Studies, I propose two ways to advance the field.

My graduate student Ryan Stillwagon and I won the 2020 Distinguished Article Award (Honorable Mention) from the Sociology of Sexualities section of the American Sociological Association for “Queer Pop-Ups: A Cultural Innovation in Urban Life.”