[Air-L] Mainstreaming Gender and Sexuality - Panel Discussion

[Light Ben]

Short notice, but all in the vicinity of Salford on the 14th December are welcome to join the panel discussion detailed below. A mini-repeat of bits of the roundtable at AoIR in Tartu, with a bit of a twist.

Best wishes,
Ben.

Ben Light - BA (Hons), MSc, PhD.

Professor of Digital Society
Development Lead – Health, Wellbeing and Society Industry Collaboration Zone

School of Health and Society
Connected Lives, Diverse Realities Research Group
University of Salford,
Salford  M5 4WT
tel: +44(0)1612950159  |  twitter: @doggyb  web: www.benlight.me<http://www.benlight.me/>
open access papers: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/view/authors/59563.html

Recent Publications Include:
Albury, K., Burgess, J., Light, B., Race, K., and Wilken, R. (2017). Data cultures of mobile dating and hook-up apps: Emerging issues for critical social science research, Big Data and Society 4(2): http://usir.salford.ac.uk/43296/
Light, B., Burgess, J. and Duguay, S. (2016). The walkthrough method: An approach to the study of apps. New Media and Society: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/40327/
Light, B. (2016). The rise of speculative devices: Hooking up with the bots of Ashley Madison. First Monday, 21(6): http://usir.salford.ac.uk/40326/




From the margins to the centre: bringing gender and sexuality studies into the mainstream through a consideration of the Hashtag #NSFW (Not Safe For Work)
Professor Ben Light, University of Salford, UK, Professor Susanna Paasonen – University of Turku, Finland and Professor Jenny Sundén - Södertörn University, Sweden.
Panel Discussion 14th December 2017 1pm to 3pm
Allerton Building L219
Hosted by the Centre for Applied Research in Health, Welfare and Policy
Connected Lives, Diverse Realities Research Group

This panel discussion interrogates why it is that much scholarly work on gender and sexuality remains at the margins of research into culture and society. For example, in a blog for the British Sociological Association earlier this year, Ken Plummer noted that LGBT issues and queer theory are still noticeably side-lined. Innovative feminist research methods, particularly those within the participatory action tradition, continue to struggle for the recognition commanded by traditional ‘malestreamed’ methods. As bell hooks contends, feminists of colour continue to experience racism and silencing. And, rather than being an integral and integrated part of undergraduate teaching and learning, gender and sexuality studies appear to be often a topic added on to other modules in many universities throughout the Western world: a token gesture.

To facilitate the discussion, we have organised a panel of speakers around the hashtag #NSFW.  #NSFW is used in digital contexts to flag content assumed to be inappropriate for consumption, or indeed production, in many workplaces (and indeed even given the existence of the hashtag #NSFL - not safe for life), our daily lives more generally. Usage of the hashtag is often highly gendered and sexualized, while at the same time, being intimately tied with the quest for diversion, amusement, and titillation #NSFW is that which both appeals and averts. #NSFW is an excellent example for a demonstration of the centrality of gender and sexuality in society in many different ways.

This panel represents a beginning of a discussion of how we can move gender and sexuality studies from the margins of research into culture and society, and to the centre. It is a call to action. Join us to discuss how we can redefine what is considered mainstream.

Panelists:
Ben Light is Professor of Digital Society at the University of Salford, UK. His research is concerned with understanding people’s everyday experiences of digital media. He is author of Disconnecting with Social Networking Sites (Palgrave MacMillan 2014) and is currently working in the areas of digitally mediated public sexual cultures, dating and hookup apps, and is completing a book about #NSFW for MIT Press with Dr Kylie Jarrett (Maynooth) and Professor Susanna Paasonen (Turku). He has published in journals such as: New Media and Society, Cultural Sociology, Information Communication and Society, First Monday and Convergence.

Susanna Paasonen is chair of the department of Media Studies and the deputy director of the School of History, Culture and Arts Studies. Her research interests focus on media culture: more specifically, on internet research, popular culture, sexuality, pornography and theories of affect. Her current interests are affect and media technology, the diverse meanings of the hashtag #NSFW and the documentary films of Jan Soldat. She is author of Carnal Resonance: Affect and Online Pornography (MIT Press 2011). Her research has appeared in journals such as Feminist Theory, European Journal of Cultural Studies, International Journal of Cultural Studies, , Sex Education, Somatechnics, Television & New Media, and Critical Studies in Media Communication.

Jenny Sundén is Professor of Gender Studies at Södertörn University, Sweden. Her research interests are primarily in new media studies, game studies, cultural studies, science and technology studies (STS), feminist theory, queer theory, affect theory, and ethnography. She is the author of Material Virtualities: Approaching Online Textual Embodiment (Peter Lang, 2003) and Gender and Sexuality in Online Game Cultures: Passionate Play (Routledge 2012, with Malin Sveningsson). Her articles appear in Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media & Technology; European Journal of Cultural Studies; Feminist Media Studies; Games and Culture; and Somatechnics.