Learning not to Breathe the Poison

Name: Learning not to Breathe the Poison
Start: 2026-03-19T17:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-03-19T19:00:00+00:00
Location: Masaryk room

Schedule

Thu Mar 19 2026 at 05:00 pm to 07:00 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

Masaryk room | London, EN

A SSEES Politics and Sociology seminar with Dr Mariya Leviatanus, University of Edinburgh
About this Event

Learning not to Breathe the Poison: Decolonial Queer Approaches to Researching Queer and Trans Lives in Central Asia

This talk will examine the ethical complexities and questions of positionality involved in researching queer, trans, and gender-diverse people in Central Asia. Drawing on her research into the everyday lives of queer people in Kazakhstan, Mariya engages with decolonial queer scholarship and critical approaches to reflect on her own in-between identity—as someone from Central Asia, of mixed ethnic heritage, a Russian speaker, and currently residing in ‘the West.’ In challenging extractivist research practices and the colonial logics embedded in institutional ethical frameworks, she seeks to write herself back into the research process and the relationships it entails. Revisiting previously edited-out portions of interviews and her research journal, she explores themes such as the discourse of queer danger in Central Asia, self-disclosure and ‘coming out’ in research settings, and the mutuality of research relationships—their emotional and ethical impact on both herself as a researcher and the participants with whom she worked.

Speaker: Dr Mariya Leviatanus, University of Edinburgh

Mariya is a scholar, queer activist, and psychotherapist from Kazakhstan. She earned her Doctorate in Psychotherapy from the University of Edinburgh in 2020. Her earlier research explored the everyday narratives of queer individuals in Kazakhstan, while her current work focuses on Russian queer and trans* migration to Central Asia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Mariya’s publications, both past and forthcoming, examine the influence of Soviet discourses on queer narratives in Kazakhstan, the dynamics of queer activism, and the experiences of queer and trans* emigration in Central Asia. Her research foregrounds lived experience, critically engaging with how socio-political contexts shape everyday life under authoritarian regimes.