The present research project focuses on the political economies of sexuality and intimacy, the racialization of space, and the erotization of Race. For that, cruising on parks and all-gay cruise ships has been elected as the object and medium for analysis. Cruising can be understood as a relational practice marked by the erotic (usually sexual) in semi-public spaces, performed mainly by cisgender men that may or may not identify as gay, bi, pan, or queer. Across twelve months of fieldwork (London, the cruise ships), the goal is to understand the political economies of intimacy and mobility related to space-making and the embodied process of subjectivity. Furthermore, this ethnography will foment an understanding of transnational mobility and its connection to the growing advances of neoliberal forces. This project delves into cruising, which can hint at more than the apparent contradictory binaries, such as intimacy versus anonymity, public and private, or mobility and immobility.

This project "The Political Economies of Cruising: intimacy and queer mobility" is funded by Humer Foundation for Academic Talent.

Supervisor:  Prof. Dr. George Paul Meiu
Co-Supervisor:  PD Dr. Lorena Rizzo

Kaue Felipe Nogarotto Crima Bellini is a Ph.D. Candidate and Assistant in Anthropology at the University of Basel. Having a master's in African Studies from the Center for African Studies (University of Basel) and a degree in Social Sciences (Licentiate) accomplished at the State University of Maringá (UEM). Kaue was a Scholar of the Institutional Program of Initiation to Teaching (PIBID) 2014-2017, carrying out scientific initiation (2014-2015) analyzing the emotional and sexual initiations of young homosexuals in Maringá (BR). Participating in the Health in School extension project (2014-2015) aimed to increase the sexual health literacy of high school youth. Kaue also produced a scientific project to analyze male sexual practices in public spaces (2016-2017). Their master's thesis observed the adaptation process of Queer migrants from an array of African countries in Basel, Switzerland. Furthermore, the Ph.D. candidate is a member of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) and the Network of Ibero-American Anthropologists (AIBR).

Main areas of work:

• Queerness, embodiment
• Sex, sexuality, gender
• Mobility, migration
• Space-making, political economy

Regional focus:

• Latin America (Brazil)
• South Africa
• Western Europe