Contact
Biography
I use they/them pronouns.
In Portugal, I was a Director (2015-6) for a LGBTI+ youth charity, and sat on various EDI committees and boards, at both local and national levels, including the Lisbon City Council Equality and Inclusion Forum and the National Youth Council's (CNJ) policy steering group. I am a trained Equality and Inclusion Educator and have delivered workshops on LGBTI+ inclusive education and professional practice at dozens of schools and universities in the Lisbon Metropolitan area.
I hold a BA (Hons) Sociology, First class, and a MA Social Science Research Methods (Sociology), with Distinction, both from the University of Nottingham.
Teaching Summary
Identity in Popular Culture (2021-2023) - Seminar Tutor and Marker
Investigating Social Worlds (2022) - Marker
Research Summary
The Personal (Preference) is Political: Racialized Eroticisms and Sexual Racism in Queer Men's Sexual Cultures in the UK
My ESRC-funded research focuses on sexual racism and racialized desires in gay/bisexual men's sexual cultures in the UK. I explore the racial dynamics that mediate sexually-charged spaces and communities, which come to be organized around certain racialized ideas of desirability and queerness. In doing so, I pay attention to the geographical landscapes of gay/bisexual men's sexual spaces to better understand the collective nature of sexual life and its fluid constructions of desirability as a mechanism of normative power, both sexual and racial. The project uses a multi-method qualitative design using vignette-interviews and video-diaries, hearing from a diverse range of men and non-binary people across the UK. Ultimately, I work towards hybridizing queer theory and critical race theory to better understand the matrix of power where racialization and erotic ideation underpin socio-sexual life.
Recent Publications
2023. Surviving Society Spotlight Series: Race and Desire . Surviving Society Productions. 01/10/2023 00:00:00
2023. Surviving Society Spotlight Series: Sexual Racism and Whiteness . Surviving Society Productions. 01/17/2023 00:00:00
TIAGO MACHADO COSTA, 2023. Queer Liberation and Collective Effervescence: the everyday utopias of anti-racist sexual cultures In: Sexuality Research Group Mid-term Conference, European Sociological Association.
28 & 29 Sept 2023 | Sexuality Research Group Mid-term Conference (European Sociological Association), Zagreb, Croatia. Paper Presentation: "Queer Liberation and Collective Effervescence: the everyday utopias of anti-racist sexual cultures"
10 & 17 Jan 2023 | Surviving Society Podcast. Guest Producer and Host: "Race and Desire" and "Sexual Racism and Whiteness". With Jesús G. Smith and C. Winter Han.
20 Apr 2022 | British Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Online. Paper Presentation: "The Personal (Preference) is Political: Racialized Desires in Gay and Bisexual Men's Sexual Cultures in the UK"
3 Feb 2022 | LGBT Foundation. Manchester. Panellist for The Sex Tapes Series: "L(GBTQ+) men's sexuality, sex, and spaces"
3 Sep 2020 | Viral Masculinities Conference. Online. Paper presentation: "Public Preferences, Private Desires: Neoliberalism and the post-racial Public-Private Divide on Grindr"