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London School of Economics and Political Science Beyond Transnationality: A Queer Intersectional Approach to Transnational Subjects Nicole Shephard 23 December 2014 A thesis submitted to the Gender Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, December 2014 Page 1 of 393 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of oth- ers (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, in- fringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 82 221 words. Statement of use of third party for editorial help I can confirm that individual chapters of my thesis were informally copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by Dr. Alessandro Castellini or Jacob Breslow. Page 2 of 393 Abstract This thesis conceptually explores the becoming of transnational sub- jects. Critical interventions into disciplinary modes of knowledge production on such subjects have long problematised uni-dimensional, essentialist and identitarian approaches, but have had a limited impact on the mainstream(s) they address. In a postdisciplinary move, this thesis reads the literatures on transnational social spaces in migration studies, poststructuralist and new materialist insights on subject formation, intersectional approaches in gender studies and queer theory through one another to propose a queer- intersectional approach to transnational subjects. Shifting the focus to the spaces transnationality takes place in rather than normatively defined ethnic and national communities, and interrogating intersectionality’s tendency to mark out particularly gendered and racialised bodies for intersectional analysis allows for exploring heterogeneity and mul- tiplicity within transnational spaces. The queering of intersectionality disrupts Page 3 of 393 the reliance on binary variables of much transnational migration research, towards a situated analysis of the becoming of subjects in and through the transnational space. In doing so, it not only complicates the here/there bi- narism transnational studies have relied on, but calls heteronormative as- sumptions underlying gender and transnational migration research into ques- tion, and draws attention to the relationship between transnationality, gender, sexualities and the (non-)normative alignments across those and other axes of difference. In an illustrative case study, this queer intersectional approach to the becoming of transnational subjects is then put into critical dialogue with the British South Asian transnational space through an analysis of scholarly representations of British Asians, the Channel 4 dramas Britz and Second Gen- eration, and a Tumblr blog. Page 4 of 393 Acknowledgements I am indebted to a number of people who supported and sustained me throughout this PhD project. I want to express my sincere gratitude to my su- pervisor Dr. Marsha Henry for guiding me through the murky waters of as- sembling this thesis and for her expertise, understanding, advice and support throughout. Warmest thanks go furthermore to Dr. Sumi Madhok for her in- sightful advisory comments and helpful suggestions. Additionally I extend my gratitude to Gender Institute faculty including Prof. Clare Hemmings, Dr. Ania Plomien, and Dr. Sadie Wearing for their input at various stages of my project, be that through commenting on my work at annual review meetings or through their involvement with the doctoral workshop. This research was partially made possible by a series of LSE Research Studentships granted to me by the Gender Institute, to which I am most grateful, not least for the intel- lectual and social environment it has provided to research, collaborate, and write in. Warm thanks go furthermore to Hazel Johnstone for her help and Page 5 of 393 support in all (un)imaginable situations, and to all my doctoral colleagues for many productive discussions at our PhD workshops and elsewhere. Particu- lar thanks go to Dr Marina Franchi, Dr Alessandro Castellini, and Jacob Bres- low for reading chapters, sections, fragments, sentences and helping me make sense of my thinking and writing. Last but not least I would like to thank Pia Shephard for believing in me and my work and for supporting me over the past years, as well as Matthias Meier for his relentless patience and support, without which this work would have been impossible. Page 6 of 393 Table of Contents DECLARATION ......................................................................................................... 2 STATEMENT OF USE OF THIRD PARTY FOR EDITORIAL HELP ............. 2 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ 7 LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 11 Implicated trajectories ........................................................................................................................ 17 Caught between two cultures? .......................................................................................................... 21 Intersectionally transnational ............................................................................................................ 33 Queerly intersectional ......................................................................................................................... 37 Thinking methodology through postdisciplinarity ...................................................................... 42 Chapter outline ..................................................................................................................................... 58 PART I CHAPTER TWO: CONSTRUCTING THE TRANSNATIONAL SPACE .... 63 The transnational turn ........................................................................................................................ 67 Transnational trajectories ................................................................................................................... 73 Transnational social spaces ................................................................................................................ 83 Transnational intersections ................................................................................................................ 93 Concluding remarks .......................................................................................................................... 100 Page 7 of 393 CHAPTER THREE: INTERSECTIONALLY TRANSNATIONAL ............... 102 Material discursive entanglements ................................................................................................ 104 Emerging transnationally ................................................................................................................. 116 Intersectional transnationality ........................................................................................................ 120 Queer invitations ............................................................................................................................... 131 Concluding remarks .......................................................................................................................... 137 CHAPTER FOUR: QUEERING INTERSECTIONALITY .............................. 139 Queering .............................................................................................................................................. 140 Intersectional dilemmas ................................................................................................................... 148 Queering intersectionality ............................................................................................................... 164 Concluding remarks .......................................................................................................................... 175 PART II CHAPTER FIVE: THE BRITISH ASIAN TRANSNATIONAL SPACE ...... 182 Introducing the case .......................................................................................................................... 187 The British Asian in scholarly representations ............................................................................ 196 Methodological underpinnings of the case study ....................................................................... 214 CHAPTER SIX: QUEERING BRITZ AND SECOND GENERATION INTERSECTIONALLY ......................................................................................... 228 Viewing Britz and Second Generation queer-intersectionally .................................................. 228 Converging transnationalities ........................................................................................................

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