WORKSHOP 

Queering Social Media Research – Engaging with Gender, Sexual, and Relational Diversity

International Conference on Web and Social Media

Montréal, Canada

May 15, 2017

The deadline for submission is March 4^th, 2017, 8 pm PST.

Scope of the Workshop

There is currently an undeniable interest in gender, sexual, and relational diversity among Internet and social media scholars. In 2016, Shaw and Sender (2016: 1) have edited a special issue of the journal Critical Studies in Media Communication entitled “Queer technologies: affordances, affect, ambivalence” that addresses “queer media ontologies and practices” and unpacks how LGBTQ representations are “shaped by technological affordances and constraints”. In the same year, Burgess et al. (2016: 1) have put together a special issue of the journal Social Media + Society entitled “Making digital cultures of gender and sexuality with social media” that addresses “cultures of gender and sexuality that emerge from and intersect with digital materiality, governance, and practices”. Indeed, researchers are more sensitive than ever to the ubiquitous cis/heteronormative configuration of Western culture (Berlant and Warner, 1998) that must be considered in the social, political, cultural, and economic analysis of social media platforms.

By exploring the act of “queering” social media research within the context of the ICWSM, this workshop seeks to elaborate a comprehensive, transdisciplinary, and encompassing research agenda that questions, rather than take for granted, dominant assumptions about gender, sexuality, and relational diversity. To do so, we invite members from industry, civil society, and academia from various fields (communication, media studies, computer sciences, sociology, political sciences, information sciences, anthropology, science and technology, sexology, criminology, social informatics, urban studies, etc.) and theoretical backgrounds (feminist studies, gender studies, queer studies, decolonial studies, sociotechnical approaches, critical theory, cultural studies, etc.) to participate to this one-day research-building exercise.

Topics and Themes

This workshop will address two main topics. Its first topic will focus on the study of queer subjects. Here, participants are invited to collectively establish a current (although inevitably non-exhaustive) “state of knowledge” on the intersection between social media research and: 1) gender diversity, such as trans*, genderfuck, genderqueer, and other non-normative identities; 2) sexual diversity, in terms of sexual orientation and practices; and 3) relational diversity, such as polyamory, casual dating, non-monogamous relationships, etc. In an emancipatory logic, this workshop will be used as an opportunity to identify how research has so far documented the role of social media platforms in the development or reconfiguration of queer visibilities (Duguay, 2016), publics (Berlant and Warner, 1995), spaces (Bell and Binnie, 2004; Dunn, 2011), and methods (Browne and Nash, 2010; King and Cronin, 2010). Conversely, it will also address how social media platforms participate in reproducing and promoting dominant cis/heteronormative identities (Bivens, 2015; Bivens and Haimson, 2016). Thus, how has social media research been addressing gender, sexual, and relational diversity so far and what future avenues need to be explored?

The workshop’s second topic will focus on reflecting on our own assumptions (as activists, designers, and/or researchers) about gender, sexuality, and relational diversity. Here, participants are invited to share and/or challenge their own sets of practices, methods, and ethics (as well as the ones of the institutions they represent), and to collectively define what constitute queer/ed epistemological and axiological postures for social media research. Thus, how can we explore and uncover the norms, values, and/or ideologies that are embedded within our theoretical frameworks, methods, and academic institutions? How can queer, decolonial, feminist, and intersectional epistemology (among others) can contribute to a more equitable research agenda?

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

• The role of social media platforms in enabling/oppressing queer identities, relations, and social practices;
• The use of social media in queer advocacy campaigns;
• How forms of discrimination are “built into” machine learning algorithms;
• Regimes of in/visibility and surveillance;
• The emergence of new algorithmic gender and/or sexual identities and publics;
• The well-being and security of queer subjects;
• The identities of individuals who get to design social media and their relation to the development of gender, sexual, and relational categories;
• Digital methods and their potential for deconstructing/reproducing cis/heteronormativity;
• The politics and ethics of the data economy and their possible dehumanizing effects;
• The potentialities and limits of the term queering itself for social media research and the tensions that its use generates in the development of research and political agendas.

Workshop format

This full-day workshop will be organized to foster participant interactions through the conduction of group activities, such as individual presentations of papers, brainstorming sessions, and mind-mapping exercises. Please note that the activities will take place in English.

Call for papers

We will accept two types of submissions for participation in this workshop, longer position papers and short statements of interest. Submissions will be reviewed by the workshop organizers, with external reviewers tapped as necessary depending on submission numbers.

Position papers should be no more than 5 pages and should be submitted in AAAI format (see author guidelines for ICWSM). These papers if accepted will be included in the ICWSM workshop proceedings. These papers should be on the intersection between social media research and gender, sexual, and relational diversity (both theoretical and empirical works are welcomed). 

Statements of interest should be no more than two pages and can be submitted in any format. These documents will not be included in the workshop proceedings, but if accepted will be shared on the workshop website. Topics can be similar to position papers or can simply explain the potential participants’ interest in the subject matter and why they wish to participate in the workshop.

We invite proposals from researchers from academia, civil society, and industry, and would welcome a wide range of theoretical approaches and disciplinary perspectives.

Attending

Note that the author of a submission, if accepted, will be expected to attend the workshop on May 15, 2017 in Montreal, Canada as part of ICWSM. The default will be for one author per submission to attend. However, if you would like to request space for another author, please note so in your email and it may be possible, space permitting.

Fees

Although we encourage all workshop participants to register for the entire ICWSM conference, it is possible to register only for the workshop. While the rates for this year’s attendance have yet to be disclosed by the ICWSM organizers, last year’s rates (that are shown here for reference only) were: 75$ for students and 100$ for regular participants (in US dollars).

How to submit

The deadline is March 4, 2017, 8pm PST. Please email a PDF of your position paper or statement of interest (in English only) to qsmr2017@gmail.com. You may also contact the organizers with any questions at that address.

Chairs

Mélanie Millette, Professor, Département de communication sociale et publique, Université du Québec à Montréal;

David Myles, PhD candidate, Département de communication, Université de Montréal; Lecturer, Département de communication sociale et publique, Université du Québec à Montréal;

Anna Lauren Hoffmann, Post-doctoral fellow, School of Information, University of California, Berkeley.

Acknowledgement

This workshop is organized as part of the activities of the Research Chair on Digital Technology Uses and Changes in Communication (UQAM, Montréal) and of the Laboratoire de communication médiatisée par ordinateur (LabCMO, Montréal). For more information (in French), please visit: 
www.chaireusagesnumeriques.uqam.ca
www.cmo.uqam.ca

References

Bell, D., & Binnie, J. (2004). Authenticating queer space: citizenship, urbanism and governance. Urban studies, 41(9), 1807-1820.

Berlant, L., & Warner, M. (1995). Guest column: What does queer theory teach us about x?. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 343-349.

Berlant, L., & Warner, M. (1998). Sex in public. Critical inquiry, 24(2), 547-566.

Bivens, R. (2015). The gender binary will not be deprogrammed: Ten years of coding gender on Facebook. New Media & Society, 1461444815621527.

Bivens, R., & Haimson, O. L. (2016). Baking Gender Into Social Media Design: How Platforms Shape Categories for Users and Advertisers. Social Media+ Society, 2(4), 2056305116672486.

Browne, K., & Nash, C. (2010). Queer methods and methodologies. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Burgess, J., Cassidy, E., Duguay, S., & Light, B. (2016). Making digital cultures of gender and sexuality with social media. Social Media+ Society, 2(4), 2056305116672487.

Duguay, S. (2016). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer visibility through selfies: Comparing platform mediators across Ruby Rose’s Instagram and Vine presence. Social Media+ Society, 2(2), 2056305116641975.

Dunn, T. R. (2011). Remembering “a great fag”: Visualizing public memory and the construction of queer space. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 97(4), 435-460.

King, A., & Cronin, A. (2010). Queer methods and queer practices: Re-examining the identities of older lesbian, gay, bisexual adults.

Shaw, A., & Sender, K. (2016). Queer technologies: affordances, affect, ambivalence. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 33(1), 1-5.