‘Queer’ Asia is a collective of early career researchers, doctoral researchers, and activists. We are currently housed at SOAS, University of London. Our work to create a global platform for queer activists, artists, and academics is done in an entirely voluntary capacity. We strive to build a global platform from which to challenge dominant ideas, forms, and representations of gender and sexuality. As part of our labour of love we encourage our participants, readers, viewers, and collaborators to share, showcase, promote, and inspire a plethora of voices from Asia and its vast diasporas. Be the movement for a queerer Asia!
QA2018 Executive Committee (September 2017-June 2018):
Jenny Ung Loh (jl99@soas.ac.uk)
Jenny divides her time between academic pursuits focused on South Asia (gender and sexuality, religious studies, colonial and postcolonial history) and her corgis. She enjoys frequenting country pubs, cooking, and obstacle courses. Read more here
Jack Clift (jack_clift@soas.ac.uk)
Jack is a doctoral researcher at the SOAS Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies. His work focusses on twentieth-century historical fiction in Hindi and Urdu, with an emphasis on gender and representation. Once the manager of a bar, Jack has since turned his attention to honing his culinary skills – although he still makes a mean G&T if you ask nicely. Read more here
J. Daniel Luther (jdaniel_luther@soas.ac.uk)
Daniel is a fourth year doctoral researcher at the Department of South and South East Asia at SOAS, University of London. They work on queer theory, cinema, and literature. They distribue their time between London and the Midlands usually teaching, writing, chairing talks, or meeting amazing queer people from around the world! Chirps and twits @JDL_queerasia. Read more here
Aapurv Jain (aapurvjain@gmail.com)
Aapurv is an international development professional based in New Delhi, India. He completed his MA Gender and Sexuality at SOAS, University of London as a Felix Scholar. His current work spans program management, communications and business development. Read more here.
Alexander Hong
Alexander was a postgraduate student at SOAS studying West Asia and its languages. He is interested in examining an emergent homonormativity transmitted through media in both the West Asian and East Asian contexts. Currently based in the European Union, he writes and translates Arabic=English.
Utsa Mukherjee (utsa.mukherjee.2015@live.rhul.ac.uk)
Utsa is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Royal Holloway, University of London. His research examines the interaction between ethnic identity and leisure in the lives of British Indian children in contemporary Britain. He also dabbles into critical sexuality studies and Bollywood research from time to time and can be found binge watching shows on Netflix. He tweets at @utsa_mukherjee.
QA2018 General Committee
‘Queer’ Asia Art Exhibition Curator
Rhea Tuli (rhea.tuli.09@ucl.ac.uk)
Having grown up in New Delhi, India, Rhea has a particular interest in the relationship between South Asian visual culture and politics. She recently completed her MA in History of Art at UCL and is a prospective PhD candidate in the study of Indian colonial art. Her proposed research focuses on Leftist political sketches in Indian printed matter and attempts to locate the continuities in censorship laws between different eras of Indian governance. Prior to her academic pursuits, Rhea worked in a contemporary art gallery in Barcelona and as a privately commissioned artist for three years where she produced large-scale paintings for clients in India, America and the UK. She chirps at @Rhea_Tuli
Sara Shroff (@Samsaradc)
Sara is a PhD candidate at The New School for Public Engagement in public policy in New York. She teaches in global studies, economics, and women, gender and sexuality studies at The New School, NYU and PACE University. Her research sits at the intersections of postcolonial de/colonial economics, transnational feminism, and global queer and trans/gender studies. She previously worked in education policy, global philanthropy and social finance for over 18 years.
Author, Astrologer & Artist, Zak has been making experimental shorts and putting on theatrical productions for a decade. His play Religion of Love, about a queer Muslim debuted in 2008 at the Hackney Empire and his follow up play, Family Duty Honour, about honour killings in the UK was released in 2009. He also travels the world giving Astrology & Psychic readings whilst promoting the 145 books he has written on the same topic. At Queer Asia, Zak is on hand to offer his abilities on all things technical as our Technical Manager.
Read more here
David is the Simon Digby Postdoctoral Fellow at SOAS, University of London. He is working on the published and unpublished works of the late Simon Digby, and editing these for a new collected works series of this renowned scholar’s many significant writings. David received his PhD from SOAS in 2012, following an MA from SOAS and BA from Clare College, University of Cambridge. He rejoined SOAS in 2015, after two years on the European Research Council project Musical Transitions to European Colonialism in the Eastern Indian Ocean, based at King’s College London.
Some committee members have opted not to list their name and pictures for reasons of safety.