Gender, Sexuality and Digital Culture

The Gender and Sexualities Research Forum held a sizzling event on Tuesday June 22^nd! As London’s temperature reached more than 34 degrees outside, our symposium was the hottest ticket in town- in a room with faulty air-conditioning and the kind of glass ceiling we would all have loved dearly to smash! Depite this, we had a fantastic symposium. Sue Jackson (from Wellington, NZ) started us off talking about her project on young feminists; then Maree Martinussen (Auckland) talked about women’s friendships; Sam Mannix (Melbourne) shared some key ethical challenges raised by research using ‘intimate’ photos; and Josie Reade (Melbourne) talked to us about her work on fitspo social media influencers.

We were thrilled that BA CCI  3^rd year student Celiya Koster, with collaborator Chani Wisdom, came to talk about setting up their awesome intersectional magazine Typical Girls.   

Late afternoon sessions were focussed on dating, digital culture and sexual violence. Roisin Ryan Flood  (Essex) and Laura Thompson (City) both discussed their current work on dating apps, whilst Anastasia Powell shared insights from her new book Rape Culture Unveiled: Sexual Violence in a Digital Age. Finally Holly Powell-Jones discussed her work in schools, talking with teens about what’s ok and what’s not on smartphones and social media.

 

Image: Relaxing with drinks after the symposium