Carving Out a Place in the City. Mobilities and Spatial Strategies of Sexual and Gender Minorities in Beirut
Jean Makhlouta (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne / Géographie-cités) will present his doctoral thesis entitled Carving Out a Place in the City. Mobilities and Spatial Strategies of Sexual and Gender Minorities in Beirut, supervised by Nadine Cattan and Stéphanie Dadour.
Monday, 17 November
2 p.m.
Auditorium de l’Humathèque
Campus Condorcet
10 cours des Humanités
93300 Aubervilliers.
Jury
- Marianne Blidon, Associate Professor (HDR), University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne — Examiner
- Nadine Cattan, Research Director, CNRS — Thesis Supervisor
- Stéphanie Dadour, Associate Professor, ENSA Paris-Malaquais (PSL) — Co-supervisor
- Mona Harb, Professor, American University of Beirut — Examiner
- Renaud Le Goix, Professor, Université Paris Cité — Chair
- Nadine Roudil, Professor, ENSA Paris-Val de Seine — Reviewer
Abstract
This dissertation explores the spatial practices through which sexual and gender minorities navigate a restrictive legal and social environment to carve out a place within the city of Beirut. It aims to capture the everyday territorialities of these populations across multiple scales, ranging from the urban fabric to neighborhoods, specific sites, and embodied experiences, to unpack the mechanisms that shape a conditional “right to the city”.
Methodologically, the research draws on a qualitative approach grounded in eleven months of fieldwork conducted in Beirut between 2021 and 2023. Semi-structured interviews with 95 participants form the core of the study, offering insights into their practices across the city’s diverse spaces. Interviews are complemented by participant observation and mental mapping, fostering a nuanced understanding of everyday dynamics and the affective bonds through which individuals connect with places.
By foregrounding the mobilities and spatial strategies of sexual and gender minorities in a Middle Eastern metropolis, this dissertation contributes to renewing our understanding of how access to a normative public space is shaped by intertwined processes of inclusion and exclusion. It challenges certain assumptions in the literature by showing that the agency of these populations unfolds in multiple ways, through the continuous reinvention of practices of appropriation and spatial adaptation to resist the norms they face.
Beirut, at sunset. © Makhlouta, 2022.
