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ECREA online pre-conference

From unruliness to collective action: Resisting norms on gender and sexuality in media

Date: 7th of October 2022 (online), 9-17.15 CEST

Registration (free, open to members and non-members): https://bit.ly/3QCWlq6

How can we challenge norms on gender and sexuality? How can we disrupt the status quo and propose alternative, more inclusive narratives? Forms of unruliness, dissent, and going against the grain are expressed in various ways and transcend boundaries between research, activism, artistic and media practices.

Resistance exists in individual subversive acts and forms of collective action. For example, challenging systems of oppression in media production, representations going beyond stereotypes, and audiences engaging in oppositional reading practices. In Europe, resistance takes on additional meaning in the current context of the war in Ukraine, the horrible violations of human rights and the ongoing struggle against attacks on the press and disinformation.

In order to foster change, it is important to have opportunities for exchanging ideas and connecting with each other. As feminist scholar Sara Ahmed notes: collective movements are created by how we are moved in dialogue with others. This online pre-conference aims to create a space for sharing knowledge and having these constructive interactions.

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Preliminary programme

9-9.15: Opening and welcome (by Sara De Vuyst)

9.15-10.30: Collective action and protests (chaired by Greta Gober)

• Adolfo Carratala (University of Valencia): Fighting for equality, fighting disinformation: the strategies of LGBTQ+ organizations against fake news about the community in Spain.

• Katarzyna Ciarcińska and Katarzyna Zawadzka (University of Szczecin): Making dissent heard and visible. Polish women’s protests during the pandemics.

• Louiselle Vassallo (University of Malta): #occupyjustice – an all-women pressure group campaigning for truth and justice in the wake of the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta.

10.30-10:45: short break

10.45-12.00: Unruly bodies and sexualities (chaired by Sara De Vuyst)

• Martina Vitackova (Ghent University): “Oud word is nie vir sissies nie“. Representations of older women’s sexuality in popular romance literature in Afrikaans.

• Christina Goestl (artist, cccggg.net, clitoressa.net): Orgasm. On the flux and flow of a term through times and spaces.

• Katrien Jacobs (Chinese University of Hong Kong): Algorithmic Fat Bellies and Menopausal Rage.

12:00-13.00: Lunch break

13.00-14:15: Fixing, diversifying and problematizing representations (chaired by Despina Chronaki)

• Brenda Murphy (University of Malta): FIXED-IT and PANELS NOT MANELS CAMPAIGNS

• Paula Rodríguez-Rivera (University of Vigo) and Pedro Ferreira (University of Porto): Exploring trans* identity trough videogames: A Normal Lost Phone.

• Manuel Bolz (University of Hamburg): Queering ‘Rape and Revenge’. Revenge cultures and sexualized violence beyond heteronormative worldmaking.

• Taaka Irene (Friends UG): Friends UG In Ekigoma Flash Mob (Efm)

14:15-14:30: short break

14:30-15:30: Value of collective ‘unruliness’ for increasing newsrooms’ discursive diversity? Panel discussion organized by Greta Gober, principal investigator of the Norway grants-funded “Diversity Management as Innovation in Journalism” research project.

• Jenny Rönngren, Journalist and news editor at Syre, former managing editor at Fempers (for 12 years).

• Sagal Hussein Omar. Radio Journalist, writer, researcher, and producer. Sagal started Walaalo Studio in 2019, dedicated to producing content with a focus on minorities in Sweden.

• Yasir Mirza, Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Financial Times

• Dr. David Dunkley Gyimah, Senior Lecturer at Cardiff School of Journalism, Emerging Journalism and AI whose also an active researcher and industry consultant working transformatively around diversity questions with the Financial Times, BBC & Press Association (PA) among others

15:30-15:45: short break

15:45-17:00: Challenging norms in academia: The potential of open access and alternative forms of publishing for improving diversity and equality – panel discussion organised by the ECREA Women’s network moderated by Tonny Krijnen

• Anna Backman Rogers (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) and Anna Misiak (Falmouth University, UK) – Editors of MAI Feminism and Visual Culture.

• Chloe Turner (Goldsmiths University of London, UK) – Editorial member at the Feminist Review.

• Rebekka Kiesewetter (Coventry University, UK) – Member of Jisc’s Open Research Advisory Board.

• More participants TBA soon

17:00-17.15: closing remarks

 

Further information:

The event is organised by the ECREA Gender, Sexuality and Communication Section in collaboration with the ERC-funded Later-in-Life Intimacies project

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Organizing committee: Sara De Vuyst (chair), Despina Chronaki (vice-chair), Greta Gober (vice-chair), Vittoria Bernardini (YECREA representative), Valentyna Shapovalova, Elisa Paz Pérez, and Aleka Stamatiadi (communication officers).

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The ECREA Women’s Network and the Norway grants-funded “Diversity Management as Innovation in Journalism” research project are supporting partners.

For more info and questions, please email genderandcommunication.ecrea@gmail.com.