Event overview
Discussion with the authors about their new book with Dr. Alison Winch (MCCS, Goldsmiths) and Dr. Niki Cheong (Digital Hmanities, KCL)
Digital Intimacies asks how do queer men use their smartphones to negotiate their cultures of intimacy? It answers this question using Stuart Hall’s ‘conjunctural analysis’, whereby cultural practices are understood in terms of the historical contexts, or conjunctures, in which they emerge. Using this approach revealed that queer men used their smartphones, not simply to arrange intimate encounters, but more specifically to gain a sense of control over the parts of their intimate lives that made them feel most vulnerable. The book argues that in order to make sense of why vulnerability and control have become such major preoccupations for these men, we need to consider that they are negotiating intimacy during a period of ongoing crises: post-austerity economics, Brexit, the rise of the far right, Covid-19 and the climate crisis. These crises have affected queer men in specific ways: in the increase of homophobic violence, in ‘culture war’ rhetoric, and in the reduction of LGBTQ+ community spaces across the UK. Given this crisis-ridden context, it is no surprise that queer men used their smartphones to gain a sense of control over one of the few areas they felt they could – their intimate lives.
The format will be informal -- opening with Dr. Niki Cheong and Dr. Alison Winch posing a series of questions, followed by an open discussion.
Image: Illutration by Fredde Lanka
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 12 Nov 2024 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm |
Accessibility
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