On Friday, March 20, 2026, the seminar “Returning to the countryside from the geography of sexualities: youth and belonging in rural Catalonia” was held.
The session was delivered by Laura Soler, a PhD candidate from the same research group. During the seminar, the main findings of her doctoral thesis were presented, focusing on the trajectories of young sexual and/or gender dissidents in rural Catalan contexts.
The research examined how these individuals build ties of attachment and belonging to place within a context often shaped by specific social and cultural dynamics of rural areas. The study, based on a qualitative, intersectional, and geographical approach, drew on in-depth interviews with young adult LBT individuals who had left the city to settle in different rural regions of Catalonia.
The seminar also provided a reflection on how sexual and gender dissidence influences ways of inhabiting space, participating in community life, and generating strategies of agency and resistance in these contexts.
The event brought together researchers and students interested in the relationships between gender, sexuality, and territory, and contributed to making visible realities that are often underexplored within academia.