This is the inaugrual IRWG-Women's Studies MLK Day Lecture and is part of the Lesbian, Gay, Queer Research Initiative (LGQRI).

This presentation reports ethnographic micro-study of a household inhabited by unrelated mostly undocumented queers of color in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York City. It examines particular forms of sociality that shape how lives are embodied and how bodies are lived amidst cramped quarters and a dwindling world of opportunities. The analysis revolves around the ideas of precarity and stasis and the (im)possibilities of triumphalist futures and unbridled optimism.

Martin Manalansan is a sociocultural anthropologist interested in framing issues of gender and sexuality within processes of globalization and transnationalism. Additionally, he is interested in food, modernity, and urban life. His book, Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora (2003), is a critical ethnography of Filipino gay men living in New York. He is currently at work on two Philippine-based projects, one on return migration of Filipinos from various parts of the world, and the other on Manila and contemporary productions of urban modernity. Artin Manalansan is the editor of Cultural Compass: Ethnographic Explorations of Asian America (2000), and co-editor of Queer Globalizations: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism (2002).