Please join us a for a special SMP Seminar, where we will have the pleasure hearing from Muhamad Alif Bin Ibrahim, who will be visiting from Singapore. Details of Alif's talk are below. Tea/coffee and biscuits will be provided after the seminar. We encourage you to bring along a mug to help us minimise waste. Please note that there will not be a seminar on Thursday 7 March.

Presentation topic: Relationship resilience among gay men in long-term relationships in Singapore: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Romantic relationships and families are essential aspects of human lives and societies. However, not all relationships and families are recognised equally around the world. Many countries, including Singapore, continue to withhold the social and legal recognition of LGBTQ couples and families. Despite lacking rights and recognition, many LGBTQ couples continue to form and maintain their relationships and family units in Singapore. In this seminar, I will present findings from a qualitative study that explored the lived experiences of gay men in long-term, romantic relationships and the ways in which they safeguarded their relationships in the Southeast Asian city-state. Findings from the participants in this study point to how their coping processes and resilience strategies differed from LGBTQ couples living in Western societies. The findings warrant further research on the lived experiences of LGBTQ couples and how they maintain their relationships and family units in a marginalising context such as Singapore. I conclude the presentation by situating and linking the study with the other empirical findings generated from my broader research programme on LGBTQ couples in Singapore.

Biography: Alif (he/him) is a final-year PhD Candidate at James Cook University, Singapore Campus, and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Society of Critical Health Psychology. His research programme draws on the disciplines of psychology and sociology to examine the socio-political stressors experienced by and the resilience of LGBTQ couples in Singapore. His research interests include LGBTQ relationships and families, qualitative research methodologies, gender and sexuality, coping and resilience, and critical approaches to health and illness. He has extensive experience utilising qualitative research methods, particularly in developing and improving health services and interventions for healthcare workers and people from the LGBTQ community in Singapore.