Sexuality Education in the Peripheries: A Virtual Ethnography of Multilingual Educational Materials and Practices

In this talk we report on the exploratory stages of a virtual linguistic ethnography project concerning language and sexuality education in the peripheries. Our research focuses on the instructional materials used at an NGO drop-in centre for the queer community in a Cambodian city. These materials consist of multilingual posters (English and Khmer) displayed on the walls of the centre which provide explanations to those who make use of this space about diverse sexual identities (LGBTQ+), as well as online resources featured on the NGO’s website and social media pages that raise awareness of sexuality issues at both the local and global level. The starting point of our research is directed towards gaining an understanding of the choices and effects of providing multilingual as opposed to monolingual (Khmer only) resources for sexuality education at this particular site of engagement, especially given that the NGO states on its website that English may sometimes be preferable for getting across some of the content. As such we employ a multimodal discourse analysis of the materials (available from photographs of the materials in situ provided by the NGO and on their website), together with an analysis of perspectives drawn from online interviews conducted with the director of the centre and his staff. This virtual ethnographic approach is therefore aimed at drawing critical attention on how the use of multiple languages and other semiotic forms both create and regulate hybrid knowledges about sexual identities at intersections of the Global North and South, and how these knowledges may inform instructional and counselling practices in sexuality education initiatives based in peripheral communities such as this one