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“On the edge of sustainable”: LGBTQ+ researchers’ experiences of harm, fear, and community

Rosie Ola-Marie Orcid Logo, Charlotte Jones Orcid Logo, Amy Ryall, Tig Slater

Sexualities

Swansea University Author: Charlotte Jones Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/13634607251415362

Abstract

Those who research LGBTQ+ issues find themselves at the intersection of multiple pressures, including conservative research cultures, public backlash, and intensive workloads. This paper explores the experiences of LGBTQ+ researchers in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) through a qualitative f...

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Published in: Sexualities
ISSN: 1363-4607 1461-7382
Published: UK SAGE Publications 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71258
first_indexed 2026-01-15T23:50:40Z
last_indexed 2026-01-24T05:35:27Z
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spelling v2 71258 2026-01-15 “On the edge of sustainable”: LGBTQ+ researchers’ experiences of harm, fear, and community 60ff57269cfe0e65e571b0a68a82f69f 0000-0002-7348-4662 Charlotte Jones Charlotte Jones true false 2026-01-15 SOSS Those who research LGBTQ+ issues find themselves at the intersection of multiple pressures, including conservative research cultures, public backlash, and intensive workloads. This paper explores the experiences of LGBTQ+ researchers in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) through a qualitative focus group study. Four focus groups demonstrate that LGBTQ+ researchers experience specific barriers and challenges due to their research topic and the currently hostile political climate. We argue that the harm, fear, and (lack of) community that LGBTQ+ researchers experience can be interpreted through Ahmed’s (2014) conceptualisation of stickiness, whereby queerness holds many contradictory meanings beyond its practice. This queer stickiness impacts LGBTQ+ researchers’ careers, resulting in a challenging and stressful balance of duties and self-management in neoliberal HEIs. This article develops conceptualisations of stickiness, understandings of UK research culture and pressures, and indicates the challenges of working in commercialised neoliberal HEIs. We conclude with some suggestions on how universities could better support the researchers putting themselves at risk to benefit their research cultures. Journal Article Sexualities 0 SAGE Publications UK 1363-4607 1461-7382 Higher education, LGBTQ+, queer, research culture, visibility, universities 21 1 2026 2026-01-21 10.1177/13634607251415362 COLLEGE NANME Social Sciences School COLLEGE CODE SOSS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee This work was supported by the UKRI and the British Academy Funding through the Equality Diversity and Inclusion Caucus (ES/X008444/1). 2026-02-11T12:07:50.1398437 2026-01-15T23:41:20.4799918 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy Rosie Ola-Marie 0000-0003-1885-9625 1 Charlotte Jones 0000-0002-7348-4662 2 Amy Ryall 3 Tig Slater 4 71258__36222__3907e8604b1f4cc4b29fb79756ac5d4b.pdf 71258.VoR.pdf 2026-02-11T11:54:52.9727367 Output 596474 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
title “On the edge of sustainable”: LGBTQ+ researchers’ experiences of harm, fear, and community
spellingShingle “On the edge of sustainable”: LGBTQ+ researchers’ experiences of harm, fear, and community
Charlotte Jones
title_short “On the edge of sustainable”: LGBTQ+ researchers’ experiences of harm, fear, and community
title_full “On the edge of sustainable”: LGBTQ+ researchers’ experiences of harm, fear, and community
title_fullStr “On the edge of sustainable”: LGBTQ+ researchers’ experiences of harm, fear, and community
title_full_unstemmed “On the edge of sustainable”: LGBTQ+ researchers’ experiences of harm, fear, and community
title_sort “On the edge of sustainable”: LGBTQ+ researchers’ experiences of harm, fear, and community
author_id_str_mv 60ff57269cfe0e65e571b0a68a82f69f
author_id_fullname_str_mv 60ff57269cfe0e65e571b0a68a82f69f_***_Charlotte Jones
author Charlotte Jones
author2 Rosie Ola-Marie
Charlotte Jones
Amy Ryall
Tig Slater
format Journal article
container_title Sexualities
container_volume 0
publishDate 2026
institution Swansea University
issn 1363-4607
1461-7382
doi_str_mv 10.1177/13634607251415362
publisher SAGE Publications
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Social Sciences - Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Those who research LGBTQ+ issues find themselves at the intersection of multiple pressures, including conservative research cultures, public backlash, and intensive workloads. This paper explores the experiences of LGBTQ+ researchers in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) through a qualitative focus group study. Four focus groups demonstrate that LGBTQ+ researchers experience specific barriers and challenges due to their research topic and the currently hostile political climate. We argue that the harm, fear, and (lack of) community that LGBTQ+ researchers experience can be interpreted through Ahmed’s (2014) conceptualisation of stickiness, whereby queerness holds many contradictory meanings beyond its practice. This queer stickiness impacts LGBTQ+ researchers’ careers, resulting in a challenging and stressful balance of duties and self-management in neoliberal HEIs. This article develops conceptualisations of stickiness, understandings of UK research culture and pressures, and indicates the challenges of working in commercialised neoliberal HEIs. We conclude with some suggestions on how universities could better support the researchers putting themselves at risk to benefit their research cultures.
published_date 2026-01-21T12:07:51Z
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score 10.690561

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