Paul Boyce

My research has predominantly focused on sexual and gendered subjectivities. Doctoral research at the London School of Economics (ESRC funded) took place in West Bengal, India, and explored ways in which sexualities between men were conceived and represented in HIV prevention discourse and practice as contrasted to the lived, day-to-day experience of male-to-male sexual intimacy. This research took shape out of prior work within community-based sexual health work and activism in India, and close connections to community-based interventions remain central to much of my research; I have an MA in Applied Anthropology and Community and Youth Work from Goldsmith College, University of London. In particular I aim to develop practical and analytical connections between ethnographic practice, community work and anthropological theorization of gender, sexualities, health and socio-economic change and continuity.

From 2005-2006 I was an ESRC funded post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London and between 2007-2011 I was the recipient of an ESRC 'First Grant,' which funded further research on same-sex and transexualities in West Bengal. This work focused on the emergence of discourses of sexual individualism in regional towns and the ambivalence about such discourses in respect of people's mixed responses to 'modernity.' This project was especially concerned with 'non-subjective' aspects of day-to-day experience, and was also set against political agitation in the Darjeeling Hills area of West Bengal (exploring parallels between ethnic and sexual politics in this context). This research also had a strong visual component, working with people in the region as co-researchers in a project that explored sexual subjectivty through the use of photography.

Aside from academic anthropological work I also work as a consultant in sexualities, gender and health internationally. Recent work includes acting as co-research leader on a 14 site, community-based study of male-to-male sexualities in India, funded by DFID and resulting in three 'briefing papers' for the Indian National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), all of which inform NACO's forthcoming 5 year plan for HIV prevention. I consult for UNDP on issues relating to sex work, male-to-male sexualities, drug use and HIV prevention in S.E. Africa (with recent work in Kenya and Mauritius). I also act as a research manager for the African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) and am currently working with ASWA and UNFPA on a research project that involves exploring and developing support for young people who sell sex in Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and Mozambique.

I was also recently co-researcher on an evaluation of 'key populations' interventions in the Caribbean, for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. Between 2007-2010 I was a member of the external evaluation team for the Ford Foundations 'Global Dialogue on Sexual Health and Wellbeing.' During this period I also worked as a writing support and publication mentor for new researchers in Vietnam seeking to publish work on gender and sexuality in international journals (co-editing two special editions of Culture, Health and Sexuality). I was also a member of the international curriculum development team for a Ford Foundation funded programme in international sexuality studies and research (managed by LaTrobe University, Melbourne). Additionally I have conducted a range of consultancies on sexuality and community-based HIV prevention in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand and Turkmenistan.

Overall my work takes place at the interface of anthropological research and theorizing on sexual and gendered subjectivities and critically applied work in policy and programme development internationally. Conceptual and practical engagement across these fields of practice, and in collaboration with others, brings momentum to my research, its influences and applications.