TechnAct

We are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for the book 'Feminism, LGBTI+ and Hope in a Turbulent Era' co-edited by TechnAct Research Cluster members Mia Liinason, Onur Kilic and Sama Koshravi Ooryad. You can find the details below.

Abstract deadline: 30/1-24
Chapter deadline: 30/6-24
Expected publication date: December 2024

At present, scholars argue that we are experiencing a conjunctural crisis in which different social, economic, ideological and political contradictions are at work against each other. Researchers recognize how present times have given rise to a global resurgence of antidemocratic forces, including right-wing populism, fascism, neo-fascism, authoritarianism, autocracy and illiberalism. Yet, amidst the rise of the right in diverse local and global contexts, feminist, q***r and trans+ collectives appear to tackle emergent and recurrent challenges from ultra-conservative, right-wing and anti-gender collectives to women’s and LGBTI+ lives and liveabilities.

This edited volume invites chapters that draw on various types of ethnographic, empirical and theoretical approaches, with the aim of contributing novel analyses of the function of and conditions for hope in political struggles in times of turbulence, constraint and despair.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• What dynamics and varieties of hope emerge in feminist and/or LGBTI+ events in various locales, including notions of hopelessness in authoritarian times?
• How is the risk of romanticizing or sentimentalizing notions of hope challenged or reinscribed
in feminist and/or LGBTI+ collectives and events, locally and/or transnationally?
• How are postcolonial/decolonial politics and practices of hope expressed in local contexts and transnational travels?
• How can unexpected times, places and/or relationships of hope appear?
• How is hope as a social and political virtue enacted in diverse, local and transnational sites?
• What can theorizations of hope as a virtue contribute to our understandings and to feminist and q***r enactments?
• Under what conditions are we un-/able to hope? What are the limits and possibilities of hope in times of despair, pain and fear, in times of militarized aggression, conflicts and war?
• Could digital platforms be considered spaces of hope or spaces of dystopia for feminist and LGBTI+ subjects and collectives?
• What insights can a more inclusive and alternative notion of politics bring to the turbulent times of today, and to feminist and LGBTI+ subjectivities, collectives and events?
• What insights can the messy approaches to affect, blurring neat distinctions between different political formations, bring to analyses of our complex contemporary conjuncture?
• How does translation, as both a cultural and a linguistic tool, work as a method to build alliances and/or develop knowledges across feminist and LGBTI+ movements in various spaces?

We invite abstracts of 150–200 words. Abstract deadline January 30, 2024. Welcome with your submission!

Please send your abstracts to one of the co-editors email;
Onur Kilic [email protected]
Sama Koshravi Ooryad [email protected]
Mia Liinason [email protected]

We are very happy to announce our new episode for 'TechnAct Talks'! In this episode, we had an inspiring conversation with Elin Ferm (the co-founder of NORM Consulting in Copenhagen, Denmark) on her experiences as a norm-critical educator and her activism against gender-based violence. You can find the link to YouTube channel below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUs5n-GWGkQ&t=2s

Also follow TechnAct Talks on Spotify!:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2JnMU6ty8ScpCF6zRTubEs?si=9b66080279954dd6

On Norm-Critical Thinking at Workplaces with Elin Ferm In this episode, we had an inspiring conversation with Elin Ferm who is the co-founder of NORM Consulting based in Copenhagen. Listen to our talk to hear mor...

Mia Liinason of TechnAct will be at the AI Lund lunch seminar (13th October) to discuss and highlight interdisciplinary research needs in gender issues with social roboticist Ginevra Castellano.

More information and full programme available here:

AI Lund lunch seminar: Gender and AI Lund University. Title: Gender and AI When: 13 October at 12.00-13.15 Speakers Lory Bock Mia Liinason Laetitia Tanqueray Stefan Larsson (host & moderator) Location: Online link by registration - or hybrid

Last day to submit an abstract to 'Frontiers In Sociology' co-edited by Mia Liinason of TechnAct!

For more information use this link: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/22686/feminist-anti-racist-and-lgbti-activisms-within-and-beyond-pandemic-times-scrutinizing-the-implicati?fbclid=IwAR2seM9eiBbr9X1DshIX9-OKE6Hr6t4SaFPIJt3Cu-tofGUISTgMmqykWww

Welcome to Season 2 of the TechnAct podcast! Sama Khosravi Ooryad, the new Ph.D. in the TechnAct cluster, joins Nadia and Onur to host the podcasts in this new season.

In this episode, we are joined by Zeynab Peyghambarzadeh who is a bisexual activist and scholar with a long trajectory of feminist and LGBTQI+ activism.

Use the links below to listen to our insightful and interesting conversation with Zeynab about their translational Bi+ activism and their work with LGBTQI+ asylum seekers.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4mVR4vyn7eEcD0voHQ9CZr?si=e2ae02ef51a84af0
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/se/podcast/technact/id1504914559
YouTube: https://youtu.be/iwFrUSABDl0

On Bi+ activism with Zeynab Peyghambarzadeh We start Season 2 of the TechnAct podcast with a new member of our team, Sama Khosravi Ooryad. She is the new Ph.D. in our TechnAct cluster and is going to b...

Mia Liinason of TechnAct is co-editing a special issue of Frontiers in Sociology and there is a call for papers.

"We invite contributions that critically engage with the emergent possibilities and risks for feminist, antiracist and LGBTI+ subjects and struggles in digital times, that examine the diverse effects on digital activism and activists of the blurred boundaries between the private and public, explore ambivalences, tensions, and new alliances in feminist, LGBTI+ and anti-racist struggles, and investigate into the performative power of social justice activisms at the digital, within as well as beyond pandemic times in local and transnational contexts.

By attending not only to the impact of digital technologies on social justice activisms but also to the influence of activisms on digital technologies, platforms, and affordances, this collection of articles takes a non-digital-centric approach to critically scrutinize the shifts and continuities that characterize our turbulent present, including but not limited to themes such as:

· Feminist, LGBTI+ and anti-racist activism on social media platforms
· Emergent communities and online belongings in feminist, LGBTI+ and anti-racist activism
· Feminist, LGBTI+ and anti-racist activism during pandemic times
· Ambivalences, tensions and new alliances in feminist, anti-racist and LGBTI+ struggles
· Digital tactics in feminist, LGBTI+ and anti-racist activism
· Algorithmic connections and disconnections in feminist, LGBTI+ and anti-racist activism
· Blurring private-public boundaries and/or spatial transformations in digital activism
· The power of performativity and/or performance in feminist, LGBTI+ and anti-racist activism
· Online-offline entanglements in feminist, LGBTI+ and anti-racist activism
· Collective sensemaking in hashtag activism
· Networked (counter) publics and other reconfigurations of the public sphere in digital times"

Abstracts (of 150-200 words) should be uploaded to the submission portal of Frontiers in Sociology: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/22686/feminist-anti-racist-and-lgbti-activisms-within-and-beyond-pandemic-times-scrutinizing-the-implicati

We are getting excited about our Summer MeetUp on Thursday from 10am. It will be hosted online via Zoom, and is free to attend so please come along if you can! More information and how to sign up using this link:

TechnAct Summer MeetUp Symposium We are pleased to invite you to the TechnAct summer meet-up symposium on ‘digital platforms and collective rights’ on June 17, 2021!

Sign up to our symposium on 17th July - 10:00 - 15:30 and hear from multiple scholars about Digital Platforms and Collective Rights using the link below!

TechnAct Summer MeetUp Symposium We are pleased to invite you to the TechnAct summer meet-up symposium on ‘digital platforms and collective rights’ on June 17, 2021!

Do algorithms reinforce inequalities?

While some people believe that algorithms reinforce inequalities, others argue that digital technologies strengthen the expression of people’s rights and freedoms. Yet, neither of these approaches are true. Mia Liinason, professor in gender studies and researcher at TechnAct, explains why, and describes how to ultimately grasp the impact of digital technologies on matters of equality by attending to the interplay between algorithms, cultures and societies.

Mia Liinason: Do algorithms reinforce inequalities? While some people believe that algorithms reinforce inequalities, others argue that digital technologies strengthen the expression of people’s rights and fre...

We have a new episode in our podcast! This time we have a nice conversation with Estefania Jiménez Zúñiga, the creative director of the Design of Textile Fashion unit in Lafayette, Colombia.

Check it on
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6RZRaKGiH5BX4opG8hajGh?si=lOrF0PfBRCiq6GX_IASAYQ
Apple podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/se/podcast/technact/id1504914559?l=en
YouTube: https://youtu.be/8RYeKYLHDFk

Episode 8 - Fashion talk and a bit of gaming as well (Interview with Estefania Jimenez) In this episode we have a really fun, insightful, and interesting conversation with Estefania Jimenez about fashion, gender, and gaming as well. Estefania is...