Nearby, Self-Critical, Ambivalent: Modes of Writing Arab Queerness

This paper foregrounds what I term writing through encounters rooted in the premise of writing as a mode of creation. Encounters are understood as affective intensity generating a change in movement (Ahmed, 2000; Probyn, 2016). Through encounters with the self as well as with Arab/Swana queer immigrants, I articulate self-critical writing practices (Anzaldúa, 1987; Nelson, 2015; Mikkilä, 2024), and writing nearby (Minh-Ha, 1994) as creative and critical writing practices to weave an Arab queerness in a non-linear and fragmentary fashion. By attending to ambivalence as a site of critical inquiry and creative response, it invites a mode of writing that is open, multiple, unfinished, and always in encounters with the entangled worlds it inhabits. In this sense, writing through encounters offers novel ways for marginalized voices to reframe their understanding of intersectional identities oscillating between visibility and opacity, migratory experiences, and agencies within the academic landscape.