Tiago is on the Sociology Pathway at the University of Nottingham. Their research topic is: “The Personal (Preference) is Political: Racialised Eroticisms and Sexual Racism in Queer Men’s Sexual Cultures in the UK”. Tiago spent nine weeks at the Department of Human Geography at Uppsala University in Sweden, between March and May this year.

Their main goals were to disseminate their work, network with other researchers in their field, receive and engage with feedback from different audiences, and to develop an interdisciplinary publication based on their work. All were essentially accomplished and exceeded! They were involved in various formal and informal departmental activities, including a staff fieldwork trip to Stockholm where researchers presented their work in situ. The insight and rich feedback on their work has proved vital in developing their data analysis.

Tiago also met with scholars working on queer digital spaces in the Nordic countries. This meeting generated a wealth of feedback and discussion on their work which significantly contributed to expand and solidify their understanding on the more geographical elements of their research. Their host, Dr Thomas Wimark, also organised and facilitated a residential retreat with a number of PhD students which proved incredibly useful to their thinking and development as a researcher.

Tiago comments:

“This visit has already proven to have a significant positive impact on my PhD and on my professional development. The discussions with other scholars at Uppsala have been singularly responsible for significant breakthroughs in my work, which I am using as the base for a publication. Additionally, while this was not an anticipated goal of the visit, I developed a stronger understanding of research methodologies in human geography that I would not have otherwise. Lastly, being embedded in a different Higher Education environment has significantly expanded my understanding of the sector and what my opportunities might be on an international scale.”