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Is Homonationalism (still) a useful category of analysis?

Ringvorlesung 2026: Anti/Feminism & Nationalism

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Abstract

Twenty years ago, queer scholar Jasbir Puar coined the category of homonationalism in the aftermaths of the so-called “war on terror.” This category was meant to signify the centering of LGBTQ subjects at the core of national and imperialist projects, often at the expense of Muslim and Arab groups. While it emerged in the U.S., the concept quickly travelled to other locations, including European ones, to understand specific dynamics of selective inclusion of queer subjects happening therein. Today, islamophobia is more rampant than ever, but the emergence of anti-LGBTQ movements and discourses (often gathered under the label “anti-genderism”) requires us to reassess the ongoing usefulness of homonationalism as both a phenomenon and an analytic. By zooming in on two European contexts—the Netherlands, taken to be the cradle of homonationalism in Europe, and Italy, located at the margins of progressive sexual politics—this lecture will introduce the category of homonationalism, present two instances of its European travelings, and explore its troubled afterlife.

Bio

Adriano José Habed is an Assistant Professor in Gender and Postcolonial Studies at the Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, NL. From 2018 to 2022, he conducted his Ph.D research on queer critique and its discontents between Italy and the Netherlands. His publications include Blurring Boundaries: ‘Anti-Gender’ Ideology Meets Feminist and LGBIQ+ Discourses (co-edited with D. Beck and A. Henningen, 2023) and “‘In Europe it’s Different’: Homonationalism and Peripheral Desires for Europe” (co-authored with G. Colpani, in LGBT Activism and the Making of Europe: A Rainbow Europe?, edited by D. Paternotte and P. Ayoub, 2014).

Suggested reading:

Jasbir Puar (2007). ‘Introduction: Homonationalism and Biopolitics.’ In Terrorist Assemblages. Homonationalism in Queer Times by J. Puar.