[Air-L] Queer Internet Studies Workshop April 4 - NYC

[Mary L. Gray]

Hey all,
I'm passing along the CFP for an AMAZING workshop!! Hope you can make it!!
best,
mary


Mary L. Gray
Associate Professor Communication and Culture
Adjunct Faculty, American Studies; Anthropology; Gender Studies
Indiana University, Bloomington

Senior Researcher Microsoft Research

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Hi all,

See below for details on a Queer Internet Studies workshop I'm organizing with Jack Gieseking. It's a one-day workshop to be held at the Columbia School of Journalism with support from the Brown Institute for Media Innovation and Just Publics 365. Space is limited and we're taking people on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Hope you can make it! All apologies for cross-posting,
Jessa

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Queer Internet Studies: A One-Day Workshop

The increasing visibility of lgbtq lives and issues in mainstream media has been fraught with criticism of how such lives and issues are depicted and to whose benefit or detriment. Building from the critical work underlying these objections, we ask: what are concurrent technological developments, namely in ever emergent digital media? Online technologies have provided a means of storytelling, visualization, community building, and educational resources that have important implications for what it means to be queer. Internet scholarship crosses a number of disciplinary boundaries, converging on questions of how digital technologies are reshaping issues of identity, community and interpersonal relationships. Queer theory has been similarly multi-faceted in drawing together a diverse set of scholars interested in sexuality, gender and structures of power. In conjoining these areas of investigation, the main objective of the QIS workshop is to generate conversations that cross disciplines and backgrounds, anchored in questions of how online technologies shape and are appropriated by queer identities.

The Queer Internet Studies brings together thinkers, makers and doers in a workshop format who draw upon social scientific methods to do work at the intersection of queer life and the internet. Taking Samuel Delany's (2001) call for lgbtq contact and networking to heart, we seek to bring together researchers who investigate the construction of queer communities, the development of queer knowledge production and cultures, and assess how queer identity is understood and archived. This workshop is geared towards fostering scholarly, activist, and journalistic opportunities for digital technologies and queer storytelling and visualization. We look to identify existing projects as well as suggest future collaborations of writers, scholars, and technologists interested in possibilities for supporting the development of the queer internet and queering the internet.

Format:
The workshop is structured around generating conversations and connections between people working on similar topics from different backgrounds. More interactive sessions will take place in the morning with lightning round introductions and large group conversations. Structured afternoon sessions will allow for conversations between invited speakers, followed by open working group time for collaboration and conversation. The day will conclude with a social hour geared towards connecting participants who share ideas for projects and collaborations.

Additional details:
The workshop will be held at Columbia University's School of Journalism on April 4, 2014.  Here's a website with more information:
http://www.jgieseking.org/qis2014/

If you'd like to attend, please fill out the following form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DgWcsK_DuPQfIaFAXrKj80yCl5B3FRzCyfDtIViOtno/viewform

For questions and more information, email jlingel at microsoft.com or jgieseki at bowdoin.edu.

Thanks!
Jack & Jessa