This research explores a desire-led methodology using art workshops, suggesting it might enhance identity migration for asylum seekers.
In response to the research-led, extractivist ways that we often research people going through the UK's asylum process, I sought to design a methodology that centred the honouring of aspirations and desires. Dubbing this a desire-led methodology, it looked to utilise art and music workshops to achieve this goal, as they allow for identity migration and the expression of a multitude of narratives. Throughout this endeavour, I reflect on the potential for an anti-colonial methodology that through researching with people and their desires could manifest itself in the future. I question the ways in which we have conceptualised owning an identity, and the idea of an insider/outsider, advocating instead for a complex and conscious relationality between people.
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Isabel Arce Zelada (2025) studied this question.
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