Sensing Meem Space(s): Queer Activism in Beirut and the Potentials of Affect

Abstract

This research is about re-thinking the notion of the political that is emerging from the queer activism of the Meem community in Beirut. From 2007 to 2014, Meem was an organized group of more than 400 lesbian, bisexual, queer, trans* women and trans* people. This research proposes the model of sensing Meem space(s) as a tool for expanding formulations of queer activism in the local context of Beirut. It tackles the following questions: What potentials emerge when we shift from frameworks of representation and mobilize the encounter with affect in Meem space(s)? How can the re- mapping of activist practice in its affective textures, orientations, intimacies, and sensations, allow us to access new perspectives on the realities of queer activism in Beirut? I argue that when activism is articulated as an affectively and spatially lived experience, we can expand our understandings of the political collectivities that the Meem community builds. Analyzing throughout the trajectory of this thesis how bodies inhabit space will reveal that these collectivities of Meem are transgressive and defy the heteronormative space of Beirut, and, at the same time, they are sites where power normativities circulate. In this complex move, the task of engaging affective encounters with the everyday of the neoliberalized Beirut eventually furthers understandings and conversations about the workings of classed and heteronormative (as well as gendered, racialized, sectarian, imperialist, and secularist) power in the spatial practices of queer activism.