Davis, ‘Temporalities in Tension’, 2026

Arthur Ian Legend Davis, ‘Temporalities in Tension: Rethinking the Sexual Health of Migrant Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) through the Lens of “Outness”‘. PhD thesis, UCL Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry, 2026

Abstract

This work introduces a temporal dimension to understandings of the spatial relocations of international and intra-national migrant men who have sex with men (MSM), thereby revealing hidden dynamics of sexual risk and wellbeing. While health researchers often find migrant MSM to have poor sexual health outcomes, this purported group is far from homogeneous. MSM migrate for various reasons, from various contexts, and at various points in the life course, the unique intersections of all these factors influencing sexual health perceptions and behaviours. Thus, an understanding of the temporal journeys of migrant MSM – from one “timeline” to another – may usefully guide attempts to better map dynamics of sexual risk and wellbeing. Through an analysis of semi-structured interviews with migrant MSM recruited from three sexual health & HIV services in London, using a modified constructivist grounded theory approach, I explore how the alignment or misalignment of temporal, coming-out journeys with spatial migrations shapes sexual trajectories. Firstly, I examine the ways in which participants navigated sexual health in their places of origin, where heteronormative institutions of socialisation often placed them on a reproductive timeline in which safer-sex practices were rarely discussed. Next, I explore the ways in which “Gay London” offered access to new spaces and temporalities that enabled many participants’ gay identities to flourish, while noting that the accessibility of these spaces and temporalities was often seen to depend on socioeconomic status, for migrants and natives alike. Finally, I explore how a “critical mass of gay ways of knowing and be(com)ing” was needed to produce meaningful shifts in sexual health perceptions and behaviours, although “temporal hangovers” continued to shape patterns of engagement with sexual healthcare. I conclude that failing to remain attuned to the temporal shifts experienced by migrant (and, indeed, non-migrant) MSM risks a misidentification of their healthcare needs.