Colleagues,

 

Trust all is well.

 

Quick message to make you aware of the online free conference organised by the Gender Research Group at Nottingham Trent University. Please, see programme details below.

 

Shout out to our fellow GiMSIG member, Maranda Ridgway (Nottingham Trent), for sharing this information!

 

Best,

 

CONTEMPORARY SEXUALITIES: NEW RESEARCH

 

A free, online conference hosted by the Gender Research Group at Nottingham Trent University

 

Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2023

Time: 13:00 - 17:00 BST

Venue: Online

 

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/contemporary-sexualities-tickets-549076631987

 

Social science sits at the core of critical examinations of how shifts in people’s sexual identities and intimate erotic relationships are experienced in everyday life and understood at a societal level. In doing so, social science contributes to global, national and local level debates about sexualities and social justice in contemporary societies. This free online conference features a range of social scientists at different stages of their careers, whose work showcases the dynamism of sexuality identities, the nuances of sexual inequalities, and the challenges studying these issues can present. Presenters will engage with a range of themes, for example, consent, pleasure, safety and exploitation, sexual health, sexualities and digital media, minoritized sexualities, and sex work.

 

Keynote speaker: Professor Teela Sanders with Dr Rachel Keighley, University of Leicester

Title: Sexualities online: liberation, exploitation and responses to perpetrators

Abstract: The online space offers huge potential for identity exploration, social interaction and support as well as body/sexual labour and work. Both in terms of the economy of online spaces and the freedoms and liberations associated with online communities there is a darker side to internet use, such that the online space can facilitate a wide array of legal and illegal harms. Prime examples are the ways a person’s sexuality is the subject of discrimination and marginalisation. This paper draws on two empirical studies. One surveyed 175 13-25-year-old LGBTQ+ young people about their experiences of online hate targeting their sexuality. The other, engaging in critical Modern Slavery studies, explored the ways Adult Service Websites play a role in the facilitation and prevention of sexual exploitation of women. Consequently, we hope to illustrate the ways the online world both shapes our understanding of, and responses to sexualities and sexual behaviour. We contextualise these experiences within the broader conversations around online safety, and the policing of sexualities versus targeting perpetrators of hate and exploitation. Thus, we respond to the deeper societal attitudes relating to gender norms, sexual behaviour, and their dialectical relationship. This paper underlines the importance of challenging online hate and exploitation within a cohesive regulatory framework that recognises the needs of survivors of online harm.

 

Conference Programme

 

13.00 –13.05 Welcome: Jane Pilcher, Gender Research Group Lead, Nottingham Trent University

 

13.05 – 13.25 Paper Session 1 Daisy Matthews, Nottingham Trent University

Can sex workers be religious and spiritual? An exploration of how sex workers who identify as religious or spiritual manage their identities within their everyday lives

 

13.25 – 13.45 Paper Session 2 Anthony Gifford, Nottingham Trent University with Rusi Jaspal, Beth Jones & Daragh McDermott

‘Oh, why are PrEP Gays always like this…’: Psychosocial influences on UK-based MSM’s relationship with, and use of, PrEP

 

13.45 – 14.05 Paper Session 3 Andrew Dunn, Nottingham Trent University with Ian Stephen, Treshi-Marie Perera, Gemma Bell & James Kennaway

Misperceptions in partner body size preferences in heterosexual and homosexual men and women

 

14.05 – 14.15 10 min Q & A Chair: TBC

 

14.15 - 14.25 10 mins break

 

14.45 - 15.05 Paper Session 4 Alex Toft, Nottingham Trent University

‘These made-up things mean nothing to me’: Understanding the intersection of autism and bisexuality in the lives of young people

 

15.05 - 15.25 Paper Session 5 Sarah Seymour-Smith, Nottingham Trent University

A critical discursive psychology analysis of parents’ online posts

about adolescent sexting

 

15.25 – 15.35 10 min Q & A Chair: TBC

 

15.35 - 15.45 10 mins break

 

15.55 – 16.35 Keynote :

Professor Teela Sanders with Dr Rachel Keighley, University of Leicester

Sexualities online: liberation, exploitation and responses to perpetrators

 

16.35 – 16.55 20 min Q & A Chair: TBC

 

16.55 – 17.00 Closing remarks Jane Pilcher