University of Gothenburg
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Arman Heljic

Doctoral Student

Gender Studies
Unit
Mail
arman.heljic@gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
412 55 Göteborg
Room number
F244
Postal address
Box 200
405 30 Göteborg

About Arman Heljic

In 2016, I obtained a Master´s degree in Critical Gender Studies at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. My thesis, titled Articulations and Negotiations of Roma Masculinities: an Intersectional Analysis of Ethnicity, Sexuality, Gender and Class at the Roma Access Programs, investigates the the processes of articulations and negotiations of ethnicity on the intersections with sexuality, gender and class that have been largely overseen in the field of academic knowledge production, especially in the cases of sexual minorities within the Romani communities in Central and Eastern Europe. This research project focused on those intersections within the community of Roma students at the Roma Access Programs, at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. My specific interest was to investigate how gay, bisexual and sexually non-identifying Roma men articulate and negotiate their ethnicity, sexuality, masculinity and class in interactions within a system where heterosexuality is not only the hegemonic sexuality, but also the organizing principle of hegemonic formations of Roma ethnicity, among the group of students at the Roma Access Programs.

Upon graduation I returned back to Bosnia and Herzegovina where I continued work with LGBTQIA communities as an activist and artist, and investigated art and cultural practices as a form of resistance. This investigation lead me to my current Ph.D. topic.

My Ph.D. project investigates how Romani feminist and queer art, cultural production and artistic practices challenge notions about Romani communities in Europe. I focus on art as a form of resistance and art as spaces for counter­narratives towards anti-ziganist and homo/lesbo/bi/transfobic representations that impact the lives of Romani LGBTQ individuals.

I am currently interested in practices that are reshaping art institutions and institutions of knowledge and cultural production. With a focus on decolonial and queer practices I follow the work of artists, art collectives and institutions in Germany, Spain, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sweden.

My research areas are:

Postcolonial and decolonial studies, Critical Romani Studies, Queer Theory, Visual Studies, Performance Studies and Affect Theory.

At Gothenburg University I am teaching on both B.A. and M.A. level:

  • Gender, Sexuality and Cultural Activism
  • Queering Understandings of Masculinities
  • Under the Looking Glass: Queer Theory, Race and Community

Upcoming lectures in:

  • Postcolonial and decolonial perspectives, feminism, queer theory, activism and art

I have been engaged in writing for the general public in The Nomad, HowlRound and Revista ARTA.

Parallel to my Ph.D. project I combine artistic practices with writing as a form of knowledge production outside of traditional academic writing practices.

I am currently a part of the editorial board of MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture, founded by Dr. Anna Backman Rogers and Dr. Anna Misiak, a peer reviewed, open access journal hosted at the University of Gothenburg.