Aaron Raphael Ponce
PhD student & Teaching Assistant
PhD project title: The Life Trajectories of Gay Belgian-Chinese Couples - Sexuality, Ethnicity, and Class
Aaron’s doctoral project focuses on the life trajectories of mixed gay Belgian-Chinese couples as influenced by social, communal and political trends within the context of transnational mobility. Graduating with magna cum laude honors from KU Leuven’s Migration, Mobilities and Intecultural Mediation program (Erasmus MITRA, 2017), his previous research experience includes work on the involvement of Chinese migrants in cultural and economic diplomacy between Belgium and China, Chinese soft power, and the role of gender in the creation of migrant Chinese linguistic communities. Other personal research interests include Asian and Chinese religions, the Filipino Diaspora, Asian masculinities, queer intersectionality, Catholic history and sexual behaviors influenced by the thoughts of the Marquis de Sade. He has also participated in Yunnan University’s summer school on Ethnology and religious rituals among Chinese border minorities (China, 2016). He graduated with Cum Laude honors from the University of the Philippines’ Department of European Languages (2010).
He has worked in several domains, including language pedagogy and financial research under Standard and Poor’s. He is also a published poet and lifestyle commentator.
He was a recipient of the MSH’s PhD Seed Fund in 2018. Other awards received include the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship (Republic of China, Taiwan, 2011), and an Erasmus+ Master scholarship (France, Ireland, Belgium).
