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A Life of Otherness: Identity Negotiation, Family Relations, and Community Experiences among LGBQ Armenians in Los Angeles

Aroush, Rosie Vartyter · 2018

Set against Los Angeles as home to one of the largest and most heterogeneous Armenian diasporic communities, this study examines identity negotiation, family relations and community networks. It asks what happens when people are not encouraged to accept their identity in all its diversity, and what choices they make when one component of identity conflicts with another. It documents the strategies of Los Angeles lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer Armenians in reconciling multiple identities, finding that they use distinct disclosure strategies with family and with community members in order to belong and to maintain coexisting relationships. It examines the influence of ethnic-based institutions, family values and cultural norms on those experiences, based on interviews with LGBQ Armenian adults aged 21–51.

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Published in
PhD dissertation, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles (co-chairs: Peter S. Cowe, Michelle Erai); eScholarship
Year
2018
Language
English

Citation

Aroush, Rosie Vartyter 2018. A Life of Otherness: Identity Negotiation, Family Relations, and Community Experiences among LGBQ Armenians in Los Angeles. PhD dissertation, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles (co-chairs: Peter S. Cowe, Michelle Erai); eScholarship.

What this offers a reader

For students

Qualitative research on how young Armenians in LA navigate family, community and identity.

For academics

UCLA dissertation in Armenian studies (co-chaired by Peter Cowe); rigorous qualitative methodology.

For the community

A study of Armenians in our own community who feel they have to choose. Worth knowing what it found.

For a general reader

How LGBQ Armenians in Los Angeles navigate family and community.

Topics

Armenian diasporaLos Angeles Armenian communityidentity negotiationfamily and community institutionsqualitative ethnographyArmenian studies

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