Fieldwork within queer communities in Central Asia: a research note

Abstract

ABSTRACT Researchers researching and belonging to a marginalized community often must take additional measures to protect their research participants and themselves from verbal and physical harm. These are sentiments I, as a lesbian Kazakh woman, can certainly relate to. Apart from some accounts where local queer scholars reflect on their fieldwork in Central Asia, reflections of local scholars on their research experiences with queer communities in the region are rare. In this paper, I reflect on my experiences of navigating my insider status whilst researching intimate partner violence in same-sex couples in the region. While my shared sexuality, ethnicity and language skills made it easier for me to access and work with the marginalized queer community, my privileged social and class background marked me out as a ‘privileged’ outsider.