Description
The Queer Refugee Research Network (QUEEN) was established during a ReNEW workshop held in October 2019 at the University of Iceland. A specifically Icelandic chapter of QUEEN was established in early 2020 when GEST initiated the comprehensive research project Queer Refugees in Queer Utopias: Inclusions and Exclusions, which includes scholars from both social science, gender studies and anthropology at the University of Iceland, as well as scholars from the Netherlands. QUEEN received a three-year research grant for the project through the Icelandic Research Fund in 2020. The aim of the project is to generate knowledge on the social experiences of SOGIE refugees in Iceland, with an international
focus towards Italy and Greece. It involves policy-relevant research that seeks to enhance political understanding of this specific group of refugees and improve their conditions. The project is led by GEST’s project and research manager Thomas Brorsen Smidt as well as the principle investigator Guðbjörg Ottósdóttir from the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Iceland. Other team members are sociologist Árdís Kristín Ingvarsdóttir and anthropologist Linda Sólveigar- og Guðmundsdóttir, in addition to Maja Hertoghs from the Department of Public Administration and Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam.