[ecrea] Media (in)visibility: Gender and sexual diversity in European popular media culture

Call for Papers

"Media (in)visibility: Gender and sexual diversity in European popular 
media culture”

An ECREA Gender and Communication Symposium

Tarragona (Spain); 16-17 October 2015

Keynote speaker: Richard Dyer



RATIONALE

Popular media culture has been a key site to explore gender and sexual 
diversity. Gender and media scholars from diverse disciplines have 
turned to film, television and other popular culture products to reflect 
on how society deals with sociocultural and political-economic 
inequalities related to gender and sexual identities. On the one hand, 
scholars have been keen to point out the resistant and/or emancipatory 
potential of popular media to criticize patriarchal and heteronormative 
representations of women and LGBTs. Yet, at the same time, studies have 
shown a significant underrepresentation of women in specific cultural 
and media industries (e.g., game industries, hard news press) and a 
stubborn reiteration of hegemonic gender discourses in production 
processes and in media texts.

To this day, these opposed discourses and situations inform how gender 
and sexual identity are dealt with in popular media culture. This 
symposium is particularly interested in what these contradictory 
dynamics mean to visibility of gender and sexual identities at the level 
of production, content and reception. How does a traditionalist 
gender-normative work environment affect representations of gender and 
sexual identity? Is mere visibility in mainstream media culture 
preferable to non-representation? How do male audiences and/or female 
audiences deal with new masculinities and/or femininities on the screen? 
This symposium wants to look at these questions regarding the politics 
of visibility from an intersectional approach, emphasizing that gender 
and sexuality should be understood in relation to other identity axes as 
class, age, race or ethnicity.

Regarding the context, this symposium is interested in the negotiation 
of gender and sexual diversity in European popular media culture. 
Without diminishing the importance of studies on American popular media 
culture, the need remains to enrich the field with studies that inquire 
these issues in specific European contexts. Since the negotiation of 
gender and sexual diversity is strongly dependent on the socio-cultural, 
political-economic and legal context in which it is produced and/or 
consumed, this symposium wants to invite work that takes particular 
European contexts into account.


FORMAT

To encourage debate and fortify coherence, all presenters will be able 
to attend all panels. Instead of parallel sessions, the conference 
program will consist of plenary panel sessions and keynote 
presentations. We kindly invite paper proposals that aim to map and 
understand these contradictory dynamics that go together with issues of 
visibility of gender and sexual identity. Topics in relation to the 
theme may include (but are not limited to):

• Gender discourses and cultural industries: inquiries into production 
processes

• The non-representation of gender and sexual identities in particular 
European contexts

• Men, (new) masculinities and media

• Femininities and popular media culture

• (In)visibility in social media

• LGBT and queer representations in film, television, magazines, popular 
music or videogames

• The negotiation of gender and sexuality in mediated public spheres

• Gendered media consumption and audiences’ negotiations of meaning

• Gendered violence and the media

• Genres and formats constructing gender and LGBT discourses

• Intersectional analysis of media representations

• Aging and (in)visibility

• Sexual attractiveness in the media

• Mediated intimacy or mediated affective and sexual relationships


APPLICATION PROCEDURE

All proposals should be submitted in English. Please submit an abstract 
of 400-500 words with a brief biographical note.

Proposals must be submitted by 10/04/2015 to (ecreaoffevent2015 /at/ urv.cat). 
Presenters whose proposals are accepted will be notified by 20/06/2015.

Go to http://gcecrea.wix.com/gendercommunication for more information on 
the conference venue and registration (between 30 and 50 euros).


KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Richard Dyer is Professor of Film Studies at King’s College London and 
Professorial Fellow in Film Studies at the University of St Andrews. 
Dyer’s work has consistently dealt with understanding the relation 
between entertainment and representation, with a keen interest in issues 
concerning race, gender, and sexuality.


CONFERENCE LOCATION

Campus Catalunya. Rovira i Virgili University

Av. Catalunya 35

43002- Tarragona (Spain)

http://ow.ly/HbOoL



Suggested accommodation:

Hotel SB Ciutat de Tarragona

Plaça Imperial Tarraco 5, 43005 Tarragona



Hotel SB Express Tarragona

Plaça de les Corts Catalanes 4, 43005 Tarragona



Hotel URBIS Centre

Plaça Corsini 10 | C/ Reding, 43001 Tarragona



Hotel Lauria

Rambla Nova 20, 43004 Tarragona



Hotel Plaça de la font

Plaça de la Font, 26, 43003 Tarragona





Organized by ECREA’s Gender and Communication Section and supported by:

Asterisc. Communication Research Group. Rovira i Virgili University

URV-REPSOL Chair in Excellence in Communication

GECA. Interuniversity Standing Research Seminar on “Gender, Aesthetics 
and Audiovisual Culture”, at the Complutense University of Madrid

Drac Màgic. Association working on the diffusion of Audiovisual Culture 
and Women

YECREA - Young Scholars Network of ECREA



Scientific committee: Iolanda Tortajada, Carla Cerqueira, Frederik 
Dhaenens, Núria Araüna and Cilia Willem.

Website: http://gcecrea.wix.com/gendercommunication





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