Johnathan Norris

Matriculated September 2019

Research Interests

Anthropology of emotions and affect; ethics and morality; queer anthropology; political anthropology, politics of safety, political Islam/Muslim politics, politics of care; migration and displacement; space/place; Jordan

About

My research investigates the linkages between ethics, emotions, and queer life, particularly through the lens of safety. I have explored these interrelationships during my fieldwork in Amman, Jordan from 2022-2023. My research demonstrates how gay Arab men in Jordan—both individually and collectively— leverage discourses on, as well as the very visceral feeling of, safety, to construct an ethic of acceptable “safe” behavior. Although same-sex sexual behavior is not illegal in Jordan, it is not protected under the law, either. As such, ethics of safety are deployed across an array of situations and places, including bars, restaurants, apartments, and pool villas, as a way of protecting queer individuals, barring others, and keeping the Jordanian state and homophobic actors at bay. My research, too, highlights the ways in which Arab gay men implement “safety” in inconsistent ways as it is contested, rearticulated, and resisted, both in the interiority of the individual as well as between groups of gay men, queer activists, and the state. In this way, I attend to the tensions and convergences between queer ethics and the phenomenological/affective moment.

Socials

• Twitter: @GettnThatPhD
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/johnathan-norris

Awards & Grants

• Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship. (awarded 2023, using Spring 2024)
• Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant, Boston University. (Summer 2023).
• The American Center of Research (ACOR) and The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, Amman, Jordan and Washington D.C. Fellowship. (Fall 2022).
• Long-term Graduate Research Abroad Fellowship (GRAF), Boston University. (2022).
• Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) from the U.S. Department of State. (2021). DECLINED
• Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant, Boston University. (Summer 2021).
• Foreign Language & Area Studies (FLAS) Summer Fellowship for Arabic Study. (Summer 2021)
• Boren Fellowship for Language and Preliminary Dissertation Fieldwork in Arabic. (2021).
• Foreign Language & Area Studies (FLAS) Summer Fellowship for Arabic Study. (Summer 2020).
• Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant, Boston University. (Summer 2020).
• Boston University Dean’s Fellowship. (Fall 2019-Present). 
• The Greek Award for excellence in translation and interpretation, University of Valley Forge. (2014). 

Publications