[Air-L] What is feminist social media research? call for workshop participants

[Laura Portwood-Stacer]

(Please forward widely! This CFP can be downloaded at:
http://www.lauraportwoodstacer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/feminist-social-media.pdf
)

Workshop Series: Feminist Approaches to Social Media Research

Call for participants



Social media is a hot topic in academia, industry, and popular culture. A
raft of scholarship and journalism has emerged in the past decade on the
rise of social networking as a major site of communication and culture, and
many of the communications and media studies academic job postings in
recent years mention a desire for applicants who possess expertise in
social media. Business of all stripes are looking to capitalize on
consumers' interest in social media platforms and technologies. Policy
makers too are concerned about the implications of social networking's
dominance in the media landscape. Given all this, a scholarly conversation
about what it might mean to take an explicitly feminist approach to social
media research is ripe for the having.



To that end the Commentary & Criticism section of *Feminist Media
Studies*will organize a series of workshops on Feminist Approaches to
Social Media
Research at multiple upcoming media studies conferences (contingent on
participant interest and conference acceptance). We plan to submit
proposals to both ICA and Console-ing Passions. Other conferences may be
added if there is enough interest.



Questions up for discussion could include (but are not limited to):

·      How would existing social media research agendas shift if feminism
were put at their center?

·      How might a feminist approach require a particular definition or
redefinition of "social media"?

·      How can feminist approaches be integrated into industrial,
journalistic, and policy research?

·      How can feminist media scholars interface with social media research
taking place in the humanities, social science, and STEM fields?

·      How should intersectionality--especially with respect to race,
ethnicity, class, sexuality, and ability--inform feminist research on
social media?

·      How can we work against gender binarism and essentialism in social
media research?

·      How can feminist theories of affective and reproductive labor help
in our understanding of social media?



We are currently seeking scholars of feminist media to participate in these
discussions. We envision a core group at each workshop who will offer brief
commentary or provocations and then facilitate discussion among workshop
attendees. We aim for a diverse group of facilitators and attendees,
including junior scholars, non-tenure-track faculty, and graduate students,
as well as established voices in the field of feminist media studies.



To express interest in participating as a workshop facilitator, please
email Laura Portwood-Stacer at lportwoodstacer at gmail.com. Indicate your
current position and affiliation, your specific research interest area(s),
and which conferences (ICA and/or Console-ing Passions) you are planning to
attend. Please feel free to suggest other appropriate conferences and
indicate whether you would be willing to serve as facilitator (or possibly
chair) at any of those. Responses received by September 15th will be
considered for submission to Console-ing Passions; responses received by
October 15th will be considered for submission to ICA.


-- 
Laura Portwood-Stacer
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication
New York University
www.lauraportwoodstacer.com

Lifestyle Politics and Radical
Activism<http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/lifestyle-politics-and-radical-activism-9781441184269/>
Excerpts and downloads available at
www.lauraportwoodstacer.com/publications/lpra