University of Birmingham expert secures AHRC grant

Dr Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta is an associate Professor in Ethnomusicology and Popular music studies in the Department of Music. His research explores electronic dance music scenes with special focus of affect, sexuality, tourism, and the creative industries. Dr Garcia has more than fifteen years’ experience conducting research in ‘underground’ electronic music communities, including work in Chicago, Berlin and Paris

The focus for this project will be to examine the intersection of queerness and ‘grassroots’ activism in queer electronic music scenes and then following these threads into nightlife collectives that employ decentralised, bottom-up organising strategies to address issues that impact the communities they serve. Although, queer nightlife collectives share a grounding in queer sexualities, they serve divergent-but-overlapping communities through intersections with other marginalised identities related to race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sex work, social class, and migration.

An enduring concern for research into marginalised communities is reducing the potential for harmful impacts, such as worsening stigmatisation or disclosing sensitive information. This grant will help gather community members’ experiences of research and journalistic scrutiny while also providing an opportunity to articulate their needs and priorities for positive research impact.

During the project, there will be two months of community consultation with the queer nightlife collectives of Berlin. Working in partnership with local activist resource centre, aquea and collectives whom share a deep commitment to and involvement in electronic music in the city’s nightlife economies. With the main research question being: What kind of research (topics, methods, and outputs) would be meaningful, useful, and less harmful to queer nightlife communities?

The intended outcomes of this will be to develop a Digital Toolkit, outlining best practices, community needs/priorities, and common challenges to queer nightlife research. Intended primarily as a resource for community members, but also a general readership. Also, a Methodological Whitepaper, covering the same issues but focused more narrowly on impacting researcher practice.

In addition to specific outputs, these research activities aim to build community trust and familiarity with nightlife research. While also providing tools for both researchers and community members to engage more safely and sensitively with each other.