Feeling Queer in Translation: Credibility and (dis)order in the Asylum Process
Zisakou, Sophia LU
(2025)
In Social Text
- Abstract
- This article discusses the interweaving of queerness, affect and translation in the asylum process, focusing on the role of legal representatives. Through 16 semi-structured interviews with asylum lawyers in Greece, it explores their collaborative work with queer asylum seekers in preparing a “credible” account. Approaching legal preparation as a process of translating applicants’ emotions into what is legible and recognisable by the authorities, it critically addresses translation not only as a mode of straightening queerness and linear compliance with authorities’ expectations, but also as a (dis)orderly affective space and a fragmented temporality where unpredictable queer stories can be told, performed and (possibly) become audible.... (More)
- This article discusses the interweaving of queerness, affect and translation in the asylum process, focusing on the role of legal representatives. Through 16 semi-structured interviews with asylum lawyers in Greece, it explores their collaborative work with queer asylum seekers in preparing a “credible” account. Approaching legal preparation as a process of translating applicants’ emotions into what is legible and recognisable by the authorities, it critically addresses translation not only as a mode of straightening queerness and linear compliance with authorities’ expectations, but also as a (dis)orderly affective space and a fragmented temporality where unpredictable queer stories can be told, performed and (possibly) become audible. Reflecting on the performativity of (dis)order, this article argues that translation constitutes a site of potentiality for queerness not only oriented towards the future, but, through the embodied liminality of (un)becoming queer, it suggests a queer future in the present (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/d3ded94e-450c-43b7-bab1-e750dbe5252f
- author
- Zisakou, Sophia
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-09-08
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- in press
- subject
- in
- Social Text
- publisher
- Duke University Press
- ISSN
- 0164-2472
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- d3ded94e-450c-43b7-bab1-e750dbe5252f
- date added to LUP
- 2025-10-09 15:14:03
- date last changed
- 2025-10-16 08:28:01
@article{d3ded94e-450c-43b7-bab1-e750dbe5252f,
abstract = {{This article discusses the interweaving of queerness, affect and translation in the asylum process, focusing on the role of legal representatives. Through 16 semi-structured interviews with asylum lawyers in Greece, it explores their collaborative work with queer asylum seekers in preparing a “credible” account. Approaching legal preparation as a process of translating applicants’ emotions into what is legible and recognisable by the authorities, it critically addresses translation not only as a mode of straightening queerness and linear compliance with authorities’ expectations, but also as a (dis)orderly affective space and a fragmented temporality where unpredictable queer stories can be told, performed and (possibly) become audible. Reflecting on the performativity of (dis)order, this article argues that translation constitutes a site of potentiality for queerness not only oriented towards the future, but, through the embodied liminality of (un)becoming queer, it suggests a queer future in the present}},
author = {{Zisakou, Sophia}},
issn = {{0164-2472}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{09}},
publisher = {{Duke University Press}},
series = {{Social Text}},
title = {{Feeling Queer in Translation: Credibility and (dis)order in the Asylum Process}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/230339443/Feeling_queer_in_translation_Accepted_Manuscript.pdf}},
year = {{2025}},
}