Queering migration, migrating queer studies: a discourse analysis of Traces of Displacement and (Un)Defining Queer at the Whitworth Gallery (Manchester, UK)

This paper presents a Foucauldian-inspired Discourse Analysis of two concomitant artistic exhibitions that took place at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK, in 2023. While the Traces of Displacement is on forced migration and the experiences of artists and makers who were forced to flee their homeland, (Un)Defining Queer examines how we can use a queer lens to understand queer and queerness in Whitworth’s collections. This paper uses ‘border as method’ and a psychoanalytic framework to depict and discuss the connections and absences between ‘forced migration’ and ‘queerness’ as portrayed in the exhibits and artefacts of these two exhibitions. Both exhibitions form discursive frames and specifically depict the order of discourse between forced displacement and queer studies, while failing to acknowledge the dimensions of each other. This study uses qualitative research methods to intervene in how political research and space can be understood in the field of Critical Psychology.