Dissertation Defense | Queer Sovereignties: Cultural Practices of Sexual Citizenship in the Dutch Caribbean

This dissertation examines the reimagination of sexual citizenship by same-sex desiring and trans* subjects in the Dutch Caribbean through cultural practices, focusing primarily on Curaçao. Analysing archival documents, performances, novels, photographs, letters to the editors of newspapers, and erotic lexicons, I propose approaching these subjects’ cultural practices through the theoretical lens of what I call ‘queer sovereignties’. The concept of queer sovereignties refers to the positions staked out by same-sex desiring and trans* subjects as they reimagine how to achieve collective autonomy within the postcolonial context of the non-independent Caribbean, and emphasises how these positions both disrupt and conform to hegemonic notions of sexuality, gender, and nation.